David Foster Wallace fans.....

[HardWorkingDem]

If you were going to suggest a book of his to start with, which one would it be?

[Rowdyboy]

1. Sorry but I've read several reviews and synopses of his work and nothing

strikes me as worth the time. He may be a genius but the descriptions of his work sound deadeningly boring.

[Richardo]

2. Based on his essays, my opinion is: too much effort for not enough payback.

I've tried two collections of essays: 'Everything and More', and 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again'. Of the two, 'Supposedly Fun' was the better for me.

The thing that really annoyed me about his style was his constant use of unexplained acronyms and bloggy shortcuts: WRT = 'with regard to'. Took me FOREVER to figure that out, and he used it constantly in 'Everything and More'. So: every time I ran across it (or something like it) it reminded me how annoyed I was. Not the emotion most writers want from their readers.

Here's a review of 'Everything and More' that sums it up well:

http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/wallace_review.pdf

[bif]

3. I tried reading "Infinite Jest" about four times.

I finally gave up and threw it out. Life is too short to read stuff like that. Books written for academia.

[pitohui]

4. start at the top with "infinite jest"

"the broom of the system" is another good one

as for the haters, i have no idea why someone who is not a fan and who may not even be a fan of any literature longer than a blog post would respond in a thread asking FANS for which is his best book

if you've only read the essays, you're not a fan, you're a tourist, i'm going to assume that you're looking for fiction (story) so i strongly suggest the novels, the other stuff can be fun but it's more for completists and people looking for the quickie

"infinite jest" is not only a great book, it will last the whole summer... :-)

[Richardo]

5. I'm not a fan of his because his essays are largely - in my opinion - full of suck

I'm entitled to that opinion, and to share it with someone who is not familiar with his work. :shrug:

[HardWorkingDem]

6. The other day...

I read a review of his newest novel in, I think, the New Yorker and the author gushed on how Wallace makes the reader ponder questions that other writers do not. The reviewer didn't do a very well job on defining too many things that Wallace makes one question, but it made me think of giving some of his writing a try (I had heard of similar critiques of what was posted in this thread).

Thanks

[Mojambo]

7. His commencement speech at Kenyon is one of the more life-alteringly beautiful things I've read

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words

[Patiod]

8. I loved "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"

from the essay collection of the same name. A way to sort of slide into the pool and see if you like it before diving all the way in with tomes like IJ.....