50 Book Challenge #17: Consider The Lobster
#17: Consider The Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
Genre: non-fiction, essays/commentary
Rating: 4/5 stars
The collection of essays features David Foster Wallace's insights into worlds as disparate as the porn industry and the Maine Lobster Festival. His erudition is filtered through a popular and provocative voice whose sardonic humor reflects a general acceptance of modern life.
Wallace's shorter essays are where he's at his best, sometimes playing the role of the critic, as in "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart," and sometimes packaging tremendous poignancy in with surface humor ("The View From Mrs. Thompson's" is one of the best essays on 9/11). While his longer essays capture intriguing topics (life on the campaign trail with John McCain, the inner psychological workings of a radio disc jockey, etc.), they start to become a bit tiresome in their organization (or lack thereof). Wallace includes footnotes or sidebars as written subtexts, and while they are witty and often important, they do constantly yank the reader away from the essay itself in a manner that might infuriate some readers.
The author's real gift is to capture vignettes of the mundane and turn them into opportunities for social critique. Even though he does this with varying success, he is able to combine intellectual conversation with absurdity in a way few authors can. Peter Grier, of the Christian Science Monitor, described him best when he called him a "snowboarder with a PhD."
50 Book Challenge Books (2007)
1. Getting Things Done--David Allen (nonfic)
2. The Geography of Nowhere--Howard Kunstler (nonfic)
3. Misreadings--Umberto Eco (essays)
4. The Curtain--Milan Kundera (litcrit)
5. Bach Among the Theologians--Jaroslav Pelikan (nonfic)
6. 40 Days & 40 Bytes: Making Computers Work for Your Congregation (nonfic)
7. The Witch of Portobello--Paulo Coelho (fiction)
8. Suffer The Little Children--Peter Tremayne (mystery)
9. The Dante Club-Matthew Pearl (mystery)
10. The Audacity of Hope--Barack Obama (nonfic)
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--JK Rowling (fiction)
12. What is The What--Dave Eggers (fiction)
13. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive--Alexander McCall Smith (fiction)
14. The City of Ladies--Christine de Pizan (treatise)
15. Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon--Michael Ghiglieri (nonfic)
16. That Hideous Strength (Book 3 of the Space Trilogy)-C.S. Lewis (fiction)
17 / 50
(34.0%)
Genre: non-fiction, essays/commentary
Rating: 4/5 stars
The collection of essays features David Foster Wallace's insights into worlds as disparate as the porn industry and the Maine Lobster Festival. His erudition is filtered through a popular and provocative voice whose sardonic humor reflects a general acceptance of modern life.
Wallace's shorter essays are where he's at his best, sometimes playing the role of the critic, as in "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart," and sometimes packaging tremendous poignancy in with surface humor ("The View From Mrs. Thompson's" is one of the best essays on 9/11). While his longer essays capture intriguing topics (life on the campaign trail with John McCain, the inner psychological workings of a radio disc jockey, etc.), they start to become a bit tiresome in their organization (or lack thereof). Wallace includes footnotes or sidebars as written subtexts, and while they are witty and often important, they do constantly yank the reader away from the essay itself in a manner that might infuriate some readers.
The author's real gift is to capture vignettes of the mundane and turn them into opportunities for social critique. Even though he does this with varying success, he is able to combine intellectual conversation with absurdity in a way few authors can. Peter Grier, of the Christian Science Monitor, described him best when he called him a "snowboarder with a PhD."
50 Book Challenge Books (2007)
1. Getting Things Done--David Allen (nonfic)
2. The Geography of Nowhere--Howard Kunstler (nonfic)
3. Misreadings--Umberto Eco (essays)
4. The Curtain--Milan Kundera (litcrit)
5. Bach Among the Theologians--Jaroslav Pelikan (nonfic)
6. 40 Days & 40 Bytes: Making Computers Work for Your Congregation (nonfic)
7. The Witch of Portobello--Paulo Coelho (fiction)
8. Suffer The Little Children--Peter Tremayne (mystery)
9. The Dante Club-Matthew Pearl (mystery)
10. The Audacity of Hope--Barack Obama (nonfic)
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--JK Rowling (fiction)
12. What is The What--Dave Eggers (fiction)
13. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive--Alexander McCall Smith (fiction)
14. The City of Ladies--Christine de Pizan (treatise)
15. Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon--Michael Ghiglieri (nonfic)
16. That Hideous Strength (Book 3 of the Space Trilogy)-C.S. Lewis (fiction)
17 / 50
(34.0%)