writer
Consider David Foster Wallace
About a week ago I picked up a book in the discount section of my local Barnes & Noble called Consider The Lobster. I’d seen it in the bookstore before, and I really liked the title. Usually I don’t like it when people tell me to do things, but “consider the lobster,” is such an odd imperative that I made an exception.
I read the first essay, which was about 50 pages and had more footnotes than any case I’d read in law school, and I loved it. So I went online and Googled the name of the book’s author, David Foster Wallace, and I learned that he had hung himself the previous day. A dark coincidence and nothing more, I know, but still it makes you think…
Anyway, it’ll be a long time before I pick up a book from the discount section again.
Yeah, this guy was damn talented, and his death sucks for the rest of us.
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Publishers Weekly
The first LAWYER BOY review comes out on Monday. From Publishers Weekly.
I asked my editor how I’m supposed to prepare for this, and he said that he’d put a horse head in the bed of the PW reviewer assigned to the book.
But what I was really asking was how I’m supposed to prepare myself, emotionally, for this. I mean, when you get a bad review on your memoir, it’s like getting a bad review on your life.
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HOw do you know it will be
Submitted by tsaiguy (not verified) on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 19:12.
HOw do you know it will be bad?
I don't. Hoping for
Submitted by ricklax on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 19:31.
I don't. Hoping for good. So far it's gotten good reviews...from my parents.
Just trying to prepare for the worst...hoping for best...
That is the cutest stuffed
Submitted by Ryan (not verified) on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 21:31.
That is the cutest stuffed horse head I've ever seen!
Nah, because you can't
Submitted by Laurel (not verified) on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 04:28.
Nah, because you can't expect all good reviews. Prepare for the bad, and focus on the good. Your life is yours, who cares what other people think. Your book is good. Aside, I hope it's a great review because I think that is what you deserve.
Read "Good Old Neon" in his
Read "Good Old Neon" in his short story collection 'Oblivion.' It's brilliant, and eerie in light of his sad end.
Just passing through. Found
Just passing through. Found you on GOB and just thought I would give you a read.
Counselors, Should I
Counselors,
Should I do the stories before the rest of the nonfiction? Is Wallace best-known for that?
Thanks...but what's GOB?
I think he may be
I think he may be "best-known" for his fiction simply because 'Infinite Jest' was so immense--*literally* with something like 1,076 pages, over 100 of which are footnotes (some of which go on for pages of themselves), and also *literarily* as as a genre-buster with huge influence. It's such a crazy and upsetting book, but so awesome :) (i'd insist that you to read it before you die but you don't like being told what to do...)
I think his fiction and nonfiction spotlight each other--In his fiction he writes the most absurd things, a kind of fantastical realism that carves out something very weird but very true. I've not read as much of his non-fiction but am impressed that he can unleash the same analytical prowess and lucidity separate from the outrageous quality of his fiction. I wish my writing was that adaptable. I am very envious of his vocabulary and obsessive imagination...
I'll stop enthusing before you wish to be euthanized, but if you're interested in DFW, check out http://www.thehowlingfantods.com/dfw or the memorial threads on mcsweeneys: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/dfw/memories.html .
Thanks, Counselor Sharon.
Thanks, Counselor Sharon. 100 pages of footnotes sounds GREAT. But not sure if I can do a 1000-page book at this point in my life... But yes, I will try to get to it before death.
Yeah, it's always cool to read fiction and nonfiction by the same person. I'm envious of his vocab too.
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