A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
1997
- fiction
- humor (nonfiction)
- wit and humor
- american wit and humor
- essays
- american wit and humor, travel
- american essays, 20th century
- american wit and humor, social life and customs
- essays (single author)
The story
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.
What it’s like
Dense, restless prose that piles up qualifications, parentheticals, and footnotes, with sentences that loop back on themselves and then snap into precise, deadpan jokes. The sensory world arrives through overstimulation: fluorescent cruise-ship corridors, crowded fairgrounds, hotel carpets, the grease and noise of a festival, all rendered with an almost clinical eye. The voice is wry, self-scrutinizing, and often funny in a sour way, moving between cheerfulness and anxiety. Pacing is uneven by design, with long, looping passages that slow to a stop and then sprint. The emotional register runs from comic exasperation to a quieter ache, and the people in these pieces are mostly unhappy observers caught in their own heads, drifting toward some uneasy self-recognition. Intensity is moderate to high: frank sexual content and bodily detail, sharp cruelty in the satire, and in the darker stories a sustained, unsparing look at misogyny and depression, with little physical violence and no gore. This suits readers who enjoy clever, demanding humor and can handle discomfort, especially on a long flight, a slow afternoon, or anyone who likes essays that argue with themselves in footnotes.
More books like A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved A supposedly fun thing I'll never do againand we’ll explain which ones fit you.
