Reviews
"The best passages are those that celebrate words and the author's relationship with them....It is a treasure trove for those who love the complexities of language."--Josh Davis, Time Out, At their best these essays remind us of Wallace's arsenal of talents: his restless, heat-seeking reportorial eye; his ability to convey the physical or emotional truth of things with a couple of flicks of the wrist; his capacity to make leaps, from the mundane to the metaphysical, with breathtaking velocity and ardor., David Foster Wallace left the essay form in a different state than it was in before he wrote. He wrote of Federer that he had 'exposed the limits, and possibilities, of' his sport. Wallace himself, with mystery and metaphysics galore, did no less for the essay., "David Foster Wallace's essays show a man struggling to figure out the complexities of discernment and judgment....It isn't merely wonderful writing. It is a model of adult citizenship....In Both Flesh and Not , he is at the top of his game."--David Masciotra, The Daily Beast, "A collection spanning 20 years of Wallace's nonfiction writing on subjects as wide-ranging as math, Borges, democracy, the U.S. Open, and the entire spectrum of human experience in between... Both Flesh and Not is excellent in its entirety and just as quietly, unflinchingly soul-stirring."--Maria Popova, Atlantic, "Every one of these pieces, even the tiniest introduction to a collection of prose poems, hums with Wallace's contrary energy....They show a mind at work, and it was one of the best this country has seen."-John Freeman, Boston Sunday Globe, A prose magician, Mr. Wallace was capable of writing...about subjects from tennis to politics to lobsters, from the horrors of drug withdrawal to the small terrors of life aboard a luxury cruise ship, with humor and fervor and verve. At his best he could write funny, write sad, write sardonic and write serious. He could map the infinite and infinitesimal, the mythic and mundane. He could conjure up an absurd future...while conveying the inroads the absurd has already made in a country where old television shows are a national touchstone and asinine advertisements wallpaper our lives., "If you like essays, vocabulary lists (blepharitis! gastine!), footnotes (so many footnotes), and/or DFW, you need this."--Largehearted Boy, "Like previous collections of David Foster Wallace's essays, Both Flesh and Not displays the late author's vast intellectual curiosity....showcase[s] Wallace's ever-evolving, intimate, and often humorous relationship with language."--The New Yorker Page-Turner, A collection spanning 20 years of Wallace's nonfiction writing on subjects as wide-ranging as math, Borges, democracy, the U.S. Open, and the entire spectrum of human experience in between... Both Flesh and Not is excellent in its entirety and just as quietly, unflinchingly soul-stirring., The best passages are those that celebrate words and the author's relationship with them....It is a treasure trove for those who love the complexities of language., "Scarily astute. . . . Published originally between 1988 and 2007, these essays demonstrate Wallace's interdisciplinary approach to both pop culture and abstruse academic discourse...For Wallace devotees, these essays are required reading."--Booklist, If you like essays, vocabulary lists (blepharitis! gastine!), footnotes (so many footnotes), and/or DFW, you need this., "At their best these essays remind us of Wallace's arsenal of talents: his restless, heat-seeking reportorial eye; his ability to convey the physical or emotional truth of things with a couple of flicks of the wrist; his capacity to make leaps, from the mundane to the metaphysical, with breathtaking velocity and ardor."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, A novelist with the industrial-strength intellectual chops to theorize even our resolutely anti-intellectual age....Wallace's ear for dialogue was unmatched in contemporary fiction., David Foster Wallace's essays show a man struggling to figure out the complexities of discernment and judgment....It isn't merely wonderful writing. It is a model of adult citizenship....In Both Flesh and Not , he is at the top of his game., "David Foster Wallace left the essay form in a different state than it was in before he wrote. He wrote of Federer that he had 'exposed the limits, and possibilities, of' his sport. Wallace himself, with mystery and metaphysics galore, did no less for the essay."--Michael Robbins, Chicago Tribune Printers Row, "One of the best writers of our time....If you've never read David Foster Wallace before, his masterful study of Roger Federer, included in this anthology, is an ideal place to start."--Steph Opitz, Marie Claire, "I doubt there's a single person reading this paper who needs me to explain why they should be excited about a new collection of previously uncollected David Foster Wallace essays. His nonfiction is born out of the sort of bitingly perceptive but deeply compassionate humanity our world needs more of, and we should savor every last bit of it he left us."--Rian Johnson, writer and director of "Brick" and "Looper", Like previous collections of David Foster Wallace's essays, Both Flesh and Not displays the late author's vast intellectual curiosity....showcase[s] Wallace's ever-evolving, intimate, and often humorous relationship with language., Scarily astute. . . . Published originally between 1988 and 2007, these essays demonstrate Wallace's interdisciplinary approach to both pop culture and abstruse academic discourse...For Wallace devotees, these essays are required reading., I doubt there's a single person reading this paper who needs me to explain why they should be excited about a new collection of previously uncollected David Foster Wallace essays. His nonfiction is born out of the sort of bitingly perceptive but deeply compassionate humanity our world needs more of, and we should savor every last bit of it he left us., One of the best writers of our time....If you've never read David Foster Wallace before, his masterful study of Roger Federer, included in this anthology, is an ideal place to start.
