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A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
by: David Foster Wallace

Used Price: $10.97
Collectible Price: $245.00

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316919890
ISBN: 0316919896
Label: Little, Brown
Manufacturer: Little, Brown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: February 01, 1997
Publisher: Little, Brown
Studio: Little, Brown
Sales Rank: 463240

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Revealing a lively curiosity and sharp, ironic sense of humor, a collection of keen observations, witty analyses, and essays--which includes the acclaimed ""A Ticket to the Fair""--exposes the fault lines in today's society. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Amazon.com Review:
David Foster Wallace made quite a splash in 1996 with his massive novel, Infinite Jest. Now he's back with a collection of essays entitled A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. In addition to a razor-sharp writing style, Wallace has a mercurial mind that lights on many subjects. His seven essays travel from a state fair in Illinois to a cruise ship in the Caribbean, explore how television affects literature and what makes film auteur David Lynch tick, and deconstruct deconstructionism and find the intersection between tornadoes and tennis.

These eclectic interests are enhanced by an eye (and nose) for detail: "I have seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled what suntan lotion smells like spread over 21,000 pounds of hot flesh . . ." It's evident that Wallace revels in both the life of the mind and the peculiarities of his fellows; in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again he celebrates both.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- some great essays from a brilliant mind
There are 3 fantastic essays in here:
"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"
"Getting Away from Being Pretty Much Away from It All"
and the essay on Michael Joyce.

Its extremely sad to see such a talented writer die young. This is a good book but not great only because there are a few doozies in here. Definitely, definitely read the three chapters above for a hilarious look at cruise lines, an anthropological study of "white trash" at the Illinois State Fair, and a behind the scenes look at tennis stars who never hit the spotlight. Dead on.

Rating:

- Who should read Wallace?
To whom do you recommend David Foster Wallace's _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again?_ Literary theory geeks? There's only one short essay for them, "Greatly Exaggerated," and it reeks of mid-`90s deconstruction fervor. Tennis players? Perhaps, though in "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley" Wallace writes about tennis with the same bludgeoning style he claims to play with. Midwesterners? Um, no. The flat, hot, ignorant and obese Midwestern state fair Wallace describes in "Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All" is a distortion of the kitsch-riddled, cheese-curd soaked fair I loved as a kid. Still, the title essay of this collection, a simultaneously operatic and encyclopedic exploration of Wallace's experience on a vacation cruise, is so good as to make ... Read More

Rating:

- If we remember David Foster Wallace, it won't be for this
I am reading, or rather trying to read, this collection for my book club, and I'm not enjoying it in the slightest. I knew little of David Foster Wallace before I heard of his suicide. I was excited to read something by a writer so highly regarded, but so far I am very disappointed. It's unkind to criticise the man so soon after his death, so I'll limit my remarks to this early collection of, frankly, immature writing.

Four essays in, and I still can't see much of a point to any of this. Wallace wrote all these essays in the early to mid-1990s, but they already seem very dated. The chosen subjects are, in the main, deliberately slight - TV, youth tennis, pop culture. With a collection of free-form commentary like this, Wallace invites comparison to other writers such as: ... Read More

Rating:

- A Great Jumping Off Point for a Brilliant, Humane Writer
For those new to DFW, perhaps aware of him due to the tragic news of his recent death, this is a great place to start. This book collects essays he wrote for Harper's, Premier Magazine, and others. After DFW made his fiction bones, some genius editor (Lewis Lapham maybe?) guessed that he would make a very interesting journalist, which was an inspired call. The first, best known, reporting effort by Mr. Wallace is also the title essay, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" which recounts his experience and observations during a week spent on a cruise.

Not to be missed though, is the article DFW wrote on assignment for Premier magazine involving 3 days spent on location with David Lynch during the shooting of "Lost Highway". DFW does his usual genius take, hilarious but totally ... Read More

Rating:

- Just Okay
David Foster Wallace's short essays can be amusing at times, but the descriptions can get tedious (see 500 footnotes for examples) and he rarely seems to connect with the people he's describing.

I haven't read the DFW novels, but for hilarious and cringe-inducing non-fiction commentary, Sedaris is THE master, with Dave Eggers, Sloane Crossley and others far ahead of DFW.

Sorry, I wanted to like the book more, especially with his untimely death.

Books : A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments