Synopsis
In this collection of essays, Wallace describes his various excursions into normal life--a Caribbean cruise, the Illinois State Fair--in comic terms. This book also includes several pieces on more intellectual subjects, such as the films of David Lynch, the relationship of television and irony to American fiction, post-structuralist literary theory, and, above all, tennis.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-02-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 353 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 21.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" brings together Wallace's musings on a wide range of topics, form his early days as a nationally ranked tennis player to his trip on a commercial cruse liner. In each of these essays, Wallace's observations are as keen as they are funny. In "A Ticket to the Fair," a finalist for a 1995 National Magazine Award, Wallace visits a state fair, where he gorges himself on corn dogs, gawks at baton twirlers, admires the sheep and pig barns, and experiences the true meaning of this all-American institution. Filled with hilarious details and invigorating analyses, these essays brilliantly expose the fault line in our culture and once again reveal David Foster Wallace's extraordinary talent and gargantuan intellect.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again collects David Foster Wallace's writings on a range of subjects that only he could bring together. From personal narratives to tennis, film, philosophy, and postmodern literary theory, no subject is outside the play of his imagination. In "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All", a finalist for the 1995 National Magazine Award, Wallace gorges himself on corn dogs, gawks at baton twirlers, and gropes toward the true meaning of the all-American Institution the State Fair. In the title essay, one of the most talked about (and frequently photocopied) nonfiction pieces of the-year, Wallace reports with excruciating humor the agonies of enduring forced fun on a commercial cruiseliner. Wallace's sports obsession comes out in an essay about the unfathomable gulf between professional tennis players and the merely excellent. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" explores the deep currents affecting both popular arts and literary craft, while "David Lynch Keeps His Head" is at once a portrait of the artist at work and an appreciation of the far-reaching cultural influence a popular artist can have.
Industry Reviews
"He has a way of making you see the mundane things you've seen a thousand times before from a slightly different angle....Indeed the ordinary becomes slightly surreal in these pieces, much the way it does in Mr. Wallace's fiction....this volume not only reconfirms Mr. Wallace's stature as one of his generation's pre-eminent talents, but it also attests to his virtuosity, an aptitude for the essay, profile and travelogue, equal to the gifts he has already begun to demonstrate in the realm of fiction."
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani (02/04/1997)
"The title essay, about a seven-night Caribbean cruise, is worth the price of the book."
New York Observer - Adam Begley
"His instinct for the colloquial puts his masters Pynchon and DeLillo to shame, and the humane sobriety that he brings to his subjects--fictional or factual--should serve as a model to anyone writing cultural comment..."
Lehmann-Haupt
"...sometimes tiresome but often truly rewarding....Wallace writes with an intensity that transforms rambling reportage into a sui generis mode of weird philosophizing."
Faggen
"The funniest writer of his generation."
Grimond
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