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Semi-Ugh (updated) 2009-07-08

Reviewer: Danny Volt

I gave this one star, but I should update it to 2. The essay that attracted me first was on English usage, but it seemed daunting to tackle it. But once I got into it, that alone lifted my rating slightly.
The rest of my early review went like this and is somewhat the same (unless I revise it again!):
I had contemplated getting a Wallace book for a couple of years. I found my way there in part because of Amazon cross-reference suggestions and such ("people who bought this also bought THIS, etc.) and then I checked into it ... from what I read, his subject matter and writing style seemed up my alley.
Maybe this was the wrong book to take the plunge, so I won't paint all his work with the same brush. But I found myself paging through this book, trying to find a good starting point. The Updike chapter was mildly interesting, but otherwise .... zzzzzz.
I'm not wasting any more time trying with this one.

Amazing writing style 2009-06-29

Reviewer: David Lifson

You may or may not enjoy the topics he writes about - the first chapter chronicles his experience attending the Adult Video Awards - but the writing style is superb. Definitely worth reading.

Is Harold Hecuba author and DFW friend Evan Wright? 2009-04-28

Reviewer: M. Berenwink

Just finished re-reading this, AFTER reading Hella Nation by Evan Wright Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe, Wingnut's WarAgainst the GAP, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America. Given Wright's introduction and "Life in Porn," AND DFW's thanks to Evan Wright at the end of his book, I'm thinking Harold Hecuba is Evan Wright. Re-reading DFW essays. Comment on Harold Hecuba, Evan Wright, link? Trying to make sense of what happened after DFW died, I read Wright quoted in some magazine about the great impact DFW had on him and all of us. Claremont has a course on DFW works only - found online. RIP.

a tragic loss 2009-04-24

Reviewer: krock

i just finished reading this book. i only started reading dfw after reading about his death. after reading this book, i feel so sad that he's no longer here. his essays are extremely insightful, and he's such a brilliant writer and person. his probing curiosity about every aspect of the world around him is inspiring.

this lighted genius does not go faintly into the night 2009-03-07

Reviewer: Yasmin H. McEwen

When reading DFW it feels as if I'm on a round the clock rendezvous and always coming up short; racing around corners just to catch a glimpse of his genius. And now, sadly, the rendezvous has left our solar system.

"Certainly the End of Something" is so hilarious and pocketed with truisms that it felt as if I had been given a wafer after confession. Later, in a crispish speech DFW feeds Kafka in hilarious hand signals and laser beams launched from the podium. "Authority and American Usage" will pick up the english language, smash her to bits and pieces and defend each one with meaning. The footnotes alone. Gulp.

"Up, Simba" is quite possibly the best written satire of elections, and life on the political bandwagon; before anyone raises a hand, DFW is quite fair quite fair quite fair with use of lighting when painting The Maverick's portaiture; he begins with the definition of a hero, and then slyly hands the reader a bus ticket. Even though the election has come and gone, political minds who have not yet sampled this smattering piece of hipspeak will want to dive in. Having travelled these roads myself, it is heartening to know the fly on the wall DFW is there recording the truth of it all. Segue finds me walking through lobster carnage stripping substance from the shores of Maine. This facebook title is so hilarious for the sheer happening that DFW is writing for Gourmet magazine, and this is what he serves up! -- even if you are a knee slapping carnivore your eyes are sure to bug out, especially the footnotes in this essay regarding the way we go about killing our dinner. Not even upscale prices can keep the mind from wandering back to the inhuman way the meat's been brought to your plate. Dig in.

DFW winks back at the reader and possibly saying, "I hope Tracy Austin isn't boring you." Then he truthfully takes aim at yawn ghost writing and yawn more athlete biographies.

Winding through these pages there is just SO MUCH that the reader must ingest. And truly, if you plan on acting like you know much of anything at all in this life, then there is no possible way you can get away with not reading DFW. Regardless of whether you agree with him or not, the question is this: can you live with yourself if you don't read him? There is no other writer who questions the reality of every situation more, and who aptly sums up human behavior. And I come away with the surest sense of reality and absurdity that we are all primates now.