David Foster Wallace

[ER]

Back in college it seemed like everyone I knew who talked about this writer either excoriated the man like he was the reincarnation of Hitler, or people would take on this positive but strangely cult-like pedantic tone when discussing him, usually saying almost the same things about him word for word, yet no one seemed to exactly discuss his work either way, it was as if the man himself was the focus, not his output. So I didn't like what either side was saying and I never felt drawn to his books.

Lately though something weird is happening and it's like God himself wants me to read Infinite Jest (nooooo) because I keep encountering it referenced in conversations, on bookshelves, in the most unlikely places again after not seeing it or hearing about it for twenty years.

Odd.

[Rev. Powell]

I didn't hear much backlash against him until recently, and it's all coming from women and I don't understand why. It's not like he's anti-feminist or misogynist or anything, he just seems to appeal more to a male perspective. I remember I read through IJ and gave my mom specific pages to read so she wouldn't get too confused.

I'd say start with the essays in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and decide if you want to continue. He does write about tennis a lot (I gather he was very good, not good enough to go pro but close).

[ER]

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback, Greg. I also was given a posthumously collected anthology of his essays and ruminations, one concerning a tornado coming down on him and his friend who were playing tennis in Illinois, sending his buddy into a chain link fence so forcefully it left an imprint of the kid's face in the fence itself. (Wonder if I could've taken DFW on-court?)

As for the ever-yapping disapproval of feminists? Blah, feminism's a joke.

[Rev. Powell]

Yeah, I point out he's not anti-feminist to alert you that you may not dig him for that reason. 

[ER]

Fist-bump and karma for that one!