The David Foster Wallace Reader

About this book

Where do you begin with a writer as original and brilliant as David Foster Wallace? Here -- with a carefully considered selection of his extraordinary body of work chosen by a range of great writers critics and those who worked with him most closely. This volume presents his most dazzling funniest and most heartbreaking work -- essays like his famous cruise-ship piece "A Supposedly Fun Thing Ill Never Do Again " excerpts from his novels The Broom of the System Infinite Jest and The Pale King and legendary stories like "The Depressed Person." Wallaces explorations of morality self-consciousness addiction sports love and the many other subjects that occupied him are represented here in both fiction and nonfiction. Collected for the first time are Wallaces first published story "The View from Planet Trillaphon as Seen In Relation to the Bad Thing" and a selection of his work as a writing instructor including reading lists grammar guides and general guidelines for his students. A dozen writers and critics including Hari Kunzru Anne Fadiman and Nam Le add afterwords to favorite pieces expanding our appreciation of the unique pleasures of Wallaces writing. The result is an astonishing volume that shows the breadth and range of "one of Americas most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) whose work was full of humor insight and beauty.