David Lipsky, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF: A ROAD TRIP WITH DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
David Foster Wallace, A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN
David Foster Wallace, CONSIDER THE LOBSTER
David Foster Wallace, THE GIRL WITH CURIOUS HAIR
David Foster Wallace, BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN
David Foster Wallace, THE BROOM OF THE SYSTEM
Thoughts on selection, order? Anybody got a good used-book dealer? And what are your summer reading plans?
2 comments:
I would begin with A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, then his short stories (including Oblivion, which isn't on your list, if you haven't read it already) then Consider the Lobster, then The Broom of the System. I haven't heard Lipsky's book yet; I'll let you know after it arrives at the library.
His non-fiction is uniformly brilliant. I would save Lobster for close to the end, because it was the last book that he published, and, when you read it, you can kind of see the direction in which his life was headed.
The Broom of the System is a lot different than Infinite Jest - its good, but you can tell that he was still finding his style. I would save Lipsky for later; I wouldn't want too much detail about Wallace's personal life to color my reading of his fiction, which deserves to stand on its own two feet. I still think he will ultimately be remembered for his short stories - they're brilliantly weird, but (perhaps for obvious reasons) more focused than Infinite Jest which, for all of its considerable charms, is a bit of a loose, baggy monster.
wrong--not uniformly brilliant. Oblivion was nearly unreadable, even to a slobbering fanboy such as myself.
He also has an intellectual history of the concept of infinity (remainders FTW!)
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