Monday, June 7, 2010

Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace Best Quality


I'm not sure how this book could have been fixed, but it needed to be. Lipsky is too big a presence, or maybe the kind of presence he is causes the problem. The issue, for me, is his unabashed hero-worship of David Foster Wallace. Now, it's not hard to understand why a writer would feel that way -- Wallace was certainly a giant among writers, and then some. The problem is that the hero-worship gets in the way of the book as it exists.

Wallace's own words are amazing, and the sort of sideways manner in which he reveals himself is intriguing. However, the breathless awe that suffuses Lipsky's parts of the book (in the transcripts, in the annotations, and even in the foreward and afterward) kept interrupting my delight with what Wallace was doing.

As I mentioned, I am not sure that it could have been fixed -- the way in which Wallace reveals himself is the point of the book, and this revelation happens in the context of the tapes, so making the book (more or less) the transcript of the tapes may be the only way to get this material to the world. And lovely content it is, too. I'm glad I read the book. I just wish that Lipsky were less intrusive, and I say that even though I can see that he didn't intend to be. I can't help but wonder how this book might be better, or worse, or simply different, if the interviewer hadn't had that edge of awe about him. And then I chuckle to myself, because it's hard to imagine any serious writer approaching Wallace without awe. Maybe just someone who could hide that better? I dunno.

Anyway, it's a good book, nearly a great book.Get more detail about Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace.

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