Paperback, 353 pages
English language
Published Nov. 12, 1998 by Little, Brown and Co..
A collection of stories from David Foster Wallace is occasion to celebrate. These stories -- which have been prominently serialized in Harper's, Esquire, the Paris Review, and elsewhere -- explore intensely immediate states of mind, with the attention to voice and the extraordinary creative daring that have won Wallace his reputation as one of the most talented fiction writer of his generation.Among the stories are "The Depressed Person", a dazzling portrayal of a woman's mental state; "Adult World", which reveals a woman's agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men", a dark, hilarious series of portraits of men whose fear of women renders them grotesque.
A collection of essays on various subjects dating from twenty years or so ago. The title essay describes DFW's experiences of a seven night Caribbean cruise with his acerbic observations on the various follies of the crew and passengers and idea of cruising. Some of the essays didn't age too well, with allusions to people and things that were topical at the time I found hard to remember or care about at this remove.
