Consider the lobster, and other essays
2005
- criticism
- essays
- nonfiction
- essays (single author)
- american essays
- literary collections
The story
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.
What it’s like
Dense, digressive sentences that loop back on themselves, footnotes stacked like scaffolding, and a voice that reads like a wry, very articulate friend thinking out loud at a long table. The prose is conversational but precise, with comic deadpan sitting right beside real ethical seriousness, so a single page can move from a sly aside about a state fair to a sharp, tender observation about what it means to be a person. The sensory world is vividly specific: sweating cafeteria trays, the brightly lit clamor of a Maine lobster festival, the sterile hum of a press bus, the flat fluorescent glow of a convention hall. Its mood is restless, self-aware, and affectionate, cerebral without being cold. It suits a slow weekend afternoon, a long train ride, or a late night when you want your mind stretched but not stressed. Violence is almost absent; the closest things are bodily discomfort, the blunt facts of animal suffering, and a few unflinching passages about cruelty and appetite. It is for readers who enjoy essays that chase a question wherever it leads, who like humor that carries weight, and who want to feel intellectually lively company.
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