Both Flesh and Not: Essays
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Brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction writings by "one of America's most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review): Both Flesh and Not gathers fifteen of Wallace's seminal essays, all published in book form for the first time. Never has Wallace's seemingly endless curiosity been more evident than in this compilation of work spanning nearly 20 years of writing. Here, Wallace turns his critical eye with equal enthusiasm toward Roger Federer and Jorge Luis Borges; Terminator 2 and The Best of the Prose Poem; the nature of being a fiction writer and the quandary of defining the essay; the best underappreciated novels and the English language's most irksome misused words; and much more. Both Flesh and Not restores Wallace's essays as originally written, and it includes a selection from his personal vocabulary list, an assembly of unusual words and definitions.
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It's hard to know what to say about this exactly. First and foremost: this book wouldn't exist if DFW were still alive. But he's not, and I'm still super sad about that, and so are a lot of other people, and so we're reading like... the dregs of what he wrote when he was alive, basically. Things that were written for a very specialized audience, or things that are very dated, or whatever. But the reason so many people are willing to read, like, a review of The Best of Prose Poetry even if you've never read or even heard of any of the best prose poets, is that DFW is a great writer. There are some total gems in here. I love reading anything DFW writes about tennis even though I'm definitely not a tennis person, just because he was a tennis person and he's so thoroughly in his element. “Federer Both Flesh and Not” is an amazing essay even if you, like me, could not reliably identify Roger Federer from a lineup. If you actually know anything about tennis, it's probably even better.I also loved “The (As It Were) Seminal Importance of Terminator 2.” UGH I wish DFW were still alive and reviewing action movies on a weird blog or something. I WISH IT SO MUCH.I also loved that in between essays were excerpts from DFW's personal word notes. Like just a list of some of his favorite words and their definitions. I recommend this book if you have like, already read all of DFW's other stuff and you want more. If you haven't read any of his stuff, or any of his essays... don't start with this. This is the leftovers. And it's the leftovers of a great meal, to be certain, but... start with [b:A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again 6748 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344270821s/6748.jpg 574] and/or [b:Consider the Lobster and Other Essays 6751 Consider the Lobster and Other Essays David Foster Wallace http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344266666s/6751.jpg 2207382] and then eventually come back to this.
