|
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments | 
| Author: David Foster Wallace
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $6.99
You Save: $8.00 (53%)
Rating:  98 reviews
Sales Rank: 1296
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0316925284
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316925280
ASIN: 0316925284
Publication Date: February 2, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
David Foster Wallace made quite a splash in 1996 with his massive novel, Infinite Jest. Now he's back with a collection of essays entitled A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. In addition to a razor-sharp writing style, Wallace has a mercurial mind that lights on many subjects. His seven essays travel from a state fair in Illinois to a cruise ship in the Caribbean, explore how television affects literature and what makes film auteur David Lynch tick, and deconstruct deconstructionism and find the intersection between tornadoes and tennis. These eclectic interests are enhanced by an eye (and nose) for detail: "I have seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled what suntan lotion smells like spread over 21,000 pounds of hot flesh . . ." It's evident that Wallace revels in both the life of the mind and the peculiarities of his fellows; in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again he celebrates both.
Product Description
This exuberantly praised--and uproariously funny--first collection of nonfiction pieces by one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time--the author of "Infinite Jest"--"reconfirms Mr. Wallace's stature as one of his generation's preeminent talents" ("New York Times") 5-city author tour. Print ads .
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 93 more reviews...
some great essays from a brilliant mind December 23, 2008
Todd B. Kashdan
There are 3 fantastic essays in here:
"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"
"Getting Away from Being Pretty Much Away from It All"
and the essay on Michael Joyce.
Its extremely sad to see such a talented writer die young. This is a good book but not great only because there are a few doozies in here. Definitely, definitely read the three chapters above for a hilarious look at cruise lines, an anthropological study of "white trash" at the Illinois State Fair, and a behind the scenes look at tennis stars who never hit the spotlight. Dead on.
Who should read Wallace? December 15, 2008
Jeffrey C. Swenson (Garrettsville, OH USA)
To whom do you recommend David Foster Wallace's _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again?_ Literary theory geeks? There's only one short essay for them, "Greatly Exaggerated," and it reeks of mid-`90s deconstruction fervor. Tennis players? Perhaps, though in "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" Wallace writes about tennis with the same bludgeoning style he claims to play with. Midwesterners? Um, no. The flat, hot, ignorant and obese Midwestern state fair Wallace describes in "Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All" is a distortion of the kitsch-riddled, cheese-curd soaked fair I loved as a kid. Still, the title essay of this collection, a simultaneously operatic and encyclopedic exploration of Wallace's experience on a vacation cruise, is so good as to make me want to recommend this collection to everyone from meth addicts to lapsed Catholics. Read it, and it will change your view of Love Boat, suction toilets, and binge eating forever.
 A Great Jumping Off Point for a Brilliant, Humane Writer December 2, 2008
Jon DuBois (New York, New York)
For those new to DFW, perhaps aware of him due to the tragic news of his recent death, this is a great place to start. This book collects essays he wrote for Harper's, Premier Magazine, and others. After DFW made his fiction bones, some genius editor (Lewis Lapham maybe?) guessed that he would make a very interesting journalist, which was an inspired call. The first, best known, reporting effort by Mr. Wallace is also the title essay, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" which recounts his experience and observations during a week spent on a cruise.
Not to be missed though, is the article DFW wrote on assignment for Premier magazine involving 3 days spent on location with David Lynch during the shooting of "Lost Highway". DFW does his usual genius take, hilarious but totally without snark, on the experience of being on a big budget movie, but also, along the way, he dissects, with brilliance, David Lynch's entire body of work, and slowly reveals how crucial one Lynch film, "Blue Velvet" was to his own artistic development. It is a genuine classic, one artist describing the clear debt of gratitude he owes to another. This book is not to missed.
|
|
|
Can't find the right gift? Try a Gift Certificate
| |
