Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
by David Foster Wallace
List Price:
Our Price: $8.05
You Save: $6.94 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.93 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David Foster WallaceEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07-02
ISBN: 0316013323
Number of pages: 343
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316013321
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Book Review: "Mercurial mix of wit, intelligence, cynicism and humor..."
Summary: 5 Stars
To characterize the late David Wallace as merely a fiction writer is to be truly short sided. In fact, I'd wager that his true talent was on exhibit moreso in these wonderful books of essays and short stories and not necessarily in his novels. In 1997 he published the marvelous "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" that accumulated numerous nonfictional narrations that emoted a side of Wallace not seen in his literary breakthrough "Infinite Jest", a legendary fictional monolith. Continuing with the short non fiction writings, we now encounter "Consider the Lobster" an amalgam of previously published magazine pieces that Wallace was commissioned to write for, among others, Harpers, Esquire and Rolling Stone. Put together in an order that was surely well thought through by both author and editor, we enter a maze of prodigious writing and thinking that few writers could ever hope to aspire to. Wallace's talent is truly laid bare here and it is the reader who is the victor as one's mind is hopelessly expanded while damning fate (re: clinical depression) is responsible for taking such a talent away before his work was complete.
Yea verily, to appreciate Wallace, one must really be dialed into his cynicism...for me he's at his best when he methodically and systematically dismembers those whose inflated sense of self importance and self aggrandizement leave no other choice. In "Up Simba" and "The Big Red Son" Wallace picks apart two widely disparate but uniquely unified egos when he tackles the arrogant national press that follows a major presidential candidate and the self proclaimed untouchable postures of adult video hierarchy. Slowly at first and then gathering steam, these mercenary depictions integrate within the narrative, giving nuance and depth that by the end, the reader is suddenly faced with reporting as he's never experienced...in both of these excellent essays, I found myself laughing almost uncontrollably while marveling, at the end, at why all journalism can't be this way. This, to me, is the power of DFW.
The other essays, although not quite up to the standard of the two previously mentioned, are also excellent in varying forms. This next level would include "The View from Mrs. Thompson's", a "where were you" for Wallace on 9/11 that uniquely treats the human spirit in a seemingly heretofore un-Wallace-like way. "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart" is a rigorous diatribe at Austin's memoirs and a "how could she be so callous" with her life story review. The book's title essay is an exploration not so much of the Maine Lobster Fest of 2003, although it's certainly centered around that, rather it's a referendum on animal rights and, more specifically, a thoughtful study on the lobster and whether it's cruel and unusual punishment to boil one alive. Wallace has clearly done his homework here and his crustacean knowledge approaches Phd level.
The others are works that I would characterize as academic essays ranging from studies on Kafka and Dostoevsky (the essential post modern literary anchor points) to a surprisingly personal reflection on today's use of language compared to its intended use and how many language syntax fanatics or SNOOTS (don't ask...look it up), Wallace having been one of it's proud leaders, are mulling about the land looking and lurching for the ever present mistake in prose. These works require a lot more work and commitment from the reader but are still rewarding in the end. Finally, it wouldn't be a Wallace work without a word about the footnotes. Wallace explains that the endnotes are a way for him to "fracture reality" and provide a way to give him a second voice, all of which I believe and trust...but, I also believe that to a degree, Wallace is messing with us a bit and enjoying it...methinks he's thumbing his nose at those who would criticize him with the final essay "Host" in the book. Without giving it away, one only has to turn to any page in this essay to see what I'm talking about.
It is true that this reviewer has come aboard the DFW bandwagon very late and the circumstances of his death have certainly added the needed melancholy to his legend. But, I believe that I do possess enough balance to recognize genius when I read it and I must say that David Wallace deserves all accolades thrown his way...with "Consider The Lobster" being one of his many masterpieces.
Summary of Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
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 also 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 at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.Essays Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Essays Books
Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writingsby Angela Carter
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.66
Price in other shops:
Minerva Louise (Picture Lions)by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Picture Lions; Published: 1989-09-21; Paperback; Book
White Dynamite and Curly Kiddby Bill Martin, John Archambault
Collins; Published: 1988-08; Hardcover; Book
max's christmasby rosemary wells
Dial; Published: 1986; Hardcover; Book
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Bookby Walker Percy
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1983-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $66.99
Shadow Lines: Educational Edition, with Critical Essays by A N Kaul, Suvir Kaul, Meenakshi Mukherjee & Rajesewari Sunder rajanby Amitav Ghosh
South Asia Books/Oxford Univ Press, India; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.31
The Book of Other PeoplePenguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.91
Price in other shops:
Walden and Civil Disobedience (Penguin American Library)by Henry David Thoreau
Penguin Classics; Published: 1983-08-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.62
Price in other shops:
The Portable Machiavelliby Niccolo Machiavelli
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1979-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.35
Price in other shops:
Essays of E.B. Whiteby E. B. White
Joanna Cotler Books; Published: 1978-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $298.58
Similar Books and other products
The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977by Adrienne Rich
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1993-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Her Smoke Rose Up Foreverby James Tiptree Jr.
Tachyon Publications; Published: 2004-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.62
Price in other shops:
Lighthead (Poets, Penguin)by Terrance Hayes
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
The Broom of the System: A Novel (Penguin Ink) (The Penguin Ink Series)by David Foster Wallace
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.25
Price in other shops:
The Pale Kingby David Foster Wallace
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2011-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
Brief Interviews with Hideous Menby David Foster Wallace
Back Bay Books; Published: 2000-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.45
Price in other shops:
Oblivion: Storiesby David Foster Wallace
Back Bay Books; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops:
Girl With Curious Hairby David Foster Wallace
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1996-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.71
Price in other shops:
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Argumentsby David Foster Wallace
Back Bay Books; Published: 1998-02-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Infinite Jestby David Foster Wallace
Back Bay Books; Published: 2006-11-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.84
Price in other shops: