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Jun 06, 2016lukasevansherman rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I feel torn about David Foster Wallace. I don't think there's much disputing that he was the most brilliant writer of his generation (Franzen, Moody, Chabon, Sparks), but what does that mean? I struggled through his massive, definitive novel "Infinite Jest," respecting it without particularly liking it. I greatly prefer his essays, collected in "Consider the Lobster" and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." "The Broom of the System" is his first novel and it came out when he was only in his 20s. Set in the bland, yet quietly strange Midwest that he loved, it's more conventional and manageable (only 467 pages!) than "Infinite Jest," but it's hardly a page-turner and his formidable intelligence (and vocabulary) is evident. I'd also recommend the recent film about him, "The End of the Tour, in which Jason Segel does a surprisingly credible job of playing DFW. Aside from "Jest, he'd only write one more novel, the incomplete "The Pale King."