David Foster Wallace is dead. He was my favourite writer. Both his prose and his non-fiction have a wit and intelligence that I’ve struggled to find in anyone else. I remember reading The Girl With Curious Hair and The Broom Of The System and A Supposedly Fun Thing… in the mid-nineties I guess, almost wide-mouthed at how good they were. I identified with him completely.
I’ve never anticipated a book’s launch like I did Infinite Jest‘s. I still have the courderoy jacket with one shoulder worn down to the cotton from lugging its hard-backed thousand plus pages to work everyday.
The first time I saw the internet in action was while visiting my friend Tom’s flat – the first search we did was for ‘David Foster Wallace’.
Read this by Robert Potts in the Guardian
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5 responses so far ↓
I’ve had Infinite Jest sitting on a shelf staring at me, waiting for me, for about five years now. I must give it a go.
One day.
Have you read any of the short stories?
No, point me in the right direction.
It’s all great! If you want to work forwards, The Girl With Curious Hair is really good (short stories) – as is A Supposedly Fun Thing (a collection of essays and journalism and stuff – very funny). Links above.
Going backwards, Consider The Lobster has some wonderful things (a review of Tracey Austin’s autobiography that ends up being about all sport writing) and some dense crit lit things that I skipped.
Cool, will get Amazoning.