Lucid, learned and left field, these stories from the author of the
exhaustingly entertaining Infinite Jest owe a debt to Gaddis, Barth
and, most obviously Pynchon. You could be forgiven for thinking
that Wallace is in thrall to the idea of novelty for novelty's
sake. Here, for example is the first story in the collection, A
Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life, in its 79-word
entirety: 'When they were introduced, he made a witticism, hoping
to be liked. She laughed extremely hard, hoping to be liked. Then
each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same
twist to their faces. The man who'd introduced them didn't much
like either of them, though he acted as if he did, anxious as he
was to preserve good relations at all times. One never knew, after
all, now did one now did one now did one.' But delve deeper and you
discover that Wallace is a firm enemy of trendiness. He satirises
the quest for the dernier cri even as he epitomises the trend.
Sprinkled through this volume are three stories with the title Yet
Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders. The entries
given here are numbered 11, six and 24. Four stories share the
title of the book and appear to have been dredged at random from
some obscure archive of recondite transcripts. The most enjoyable
piece here is a screen adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the
Nibelungen Saga called Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko.
Naturally it involves many footnotes. If Wallace is a product of
academia's navel-gazing culture, he is also its severest critic.
(Kirkus UK)
In his startling and singular new short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person', a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World', which reveals a woman's agonised consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men', a dark, hilarious series of portraits of men whose fear of women renders them grotesque.
Wallace’s stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many different guises. Thought-provoking and playful, this collection confirms David Foster Wallace as one of the most imaginative young writers around. Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the ironic, the surprising and the illuminating from every situation. His new collection will delight his growing number of fans, and provide a perfect introduction for new readers.
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