Synopsis
In his third collection of stories, David Foster Wallace ranges in subject matter from an adman trying to drum up enthusiasm for a product called Mr. Squishy, to a father whose son has survived a harrowing school attack, to a sculptor who uses his own feces as a medium. As always, Wallace walks a line between the absurd and the profound, and a satiric outlook pervades many of these virtuoso pieces. A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2004-06-08 |
| Size | | Length: | 329 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 20.0 oz |
Publisher's Note
A new collection by the author of Infinite Jest includes "The Soul Is Not a Smithy," in which a lonely father recounts a daydream that distracts his son from noticing a teacher's homicidal breakdown; "The Suffering Channel," in which a sculpture artist's profile is influenced by office politics; and more.
Industry Reviews
"...Wallace is as versatile as he is facile....One of our best young writers just keeps getting better."
Kirkus (05/01/2004)
"Mr. Wallace tries to grapple with the infinite and the infinitesimal, the momentous and the marginal, describing what it's like to live inside the skin of one of his characters while conjuring up their day-to-day existence in the bizarre world of millennial America with his by now patented methods of looping, loopy digressions; manic asides; wide satiric cartoon brush strokes; and exactingly detailed, almost autistic descriptions of minutiae."
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani (06/01/2004)
"Wallace can still be funny, but his humor has been creeping away from the playful, omnivorous sort on display in his first three books...and toward a bleaker variety--as if he were making a slow switch in allegiance from Thomas Pynchon to Samuel Beckett. His style remains maximalist, but his focus has narrowed and deepened."
Salon - Laura Miller (06/30/2004)
"Wallace's best work has always held a hidden core of sympathy for his profoundly messed-up characters, and he hits and sustains that note often here. You'll still be astonished by this writer's way with a sentence, sure, but you'll also find yourself caring deeply about the residents of his worlds."
Ruminator Review - Matt Konrad
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