The Broom of the System
by David Foster Wallace
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Foster WallaceEdition: Paperback
Published: 2004-05-25
ISBN: 0142002429
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Broom of the System
Book Review: I prefer his essays
Summary: 3 Stars
David Foster Wallace is one of my favorite non-fiction authors, so I decided to read his first novel, The Broom of the System. I'd love to be able to explain the title, but I can't; I have no idea what it refers to. Ditto for most of the book's themes, characters, motifs, and its plot. It was beautifully written at times; Wallace has a real flair for dialogue as well as the same descriptive zing that makes me enjoy his essays, but since it was "Picaresque," according to the blurbs on the cover, the storyline jumped all over the place, often from page to page. Which wouldn't have bothered me too much, except most of the story lines don't end.
It seemed to me that the whole novel has no point: though it comes to a climax, the ending is very nearly on the next page, and since the characters are ambiguous and conflicted (Their most realistic traits) it is impossible to say what the final effects of the climax are, or why the characters make the choices they did. It felt to me like the author had a very distinct concept of what effect he wanted to have on the reader, and he put everything he had into creating that effect; unfortunately, he didn't focus enough on telling a good story while he was affecting me.
So I'll be sticking to Wallace's essays from now on. Though it's a shame, because judging by the incredibly convoluted and wacked out plot lines that this book follows (until they peter out in a puff of dust, that is) and the ones described in the stories-within-the-story, Wallace has a great flair for absurdist story telling. I sort of wish he'd come down a literary step or two and just write something wacky. It would be fun to read.
Summary of The Broom of the System
Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore?s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho- babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.Comic Books
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