Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
2005 • 343 pages
Ratings35
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings35
Average rating4.2
Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult-video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.
Reviews with the most likes.
An English major's wet dream. If nothing else, DFW's review of the dictionary is inspiring and provocative for anyone interested in the politics of language and usage.
However, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is not a fervent lover of words, writing, literary criticism, and the like. Otherwise, it's probably too dense and uninteresting. Even I found myself skimming - particularly the piece about McCain, as I'm just not super interested in political pieces, and it was quite long (though I still found the writing itself to be engaging and superb).
Outside my academic work, I almost never read nonfiction, so I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. The essays were interesting and funny. I enjoy DFW's writing style—it's unlike anything else. “Authority and American Usage” was my favorite of the essays, despite categorically disagreeing with some of the arguments re linguistics. Both “Up, Simba” and “Host”, which concern American politics in the early 2000s, are—unfortunately—eerily prophetic.
