Country: USA
Genre: Non-Fiction/Essays
Pages: 343
Reading the essays of David Foster Wallace give me the heartwarming feeling that no matter how strange and stupid you think your preoccupations are, there is always somebody willing to publish them as long as they are well explained. Even more so, it's REALLY comforting to develop interest in something within a page or two of reading, just because it's well put. DFW made me worry about Tracy Austin's intentions behind the publication of her memoirs over the course of twelve pages. Before that, I had no clue who the hell was Tracy Austin. That's how good Mr. Wallace is.
Consider The Lobster (And Other Essays) ins the last novel\anthology David Foster Wallace published before he died. Few of his papers received a paperback release the year he died, but this was the last full volume. As usual, you have an eclectic array of subjects going from AVN Awards to new approaches of Dostoevsky's studies and John Ziegler. Other articles discuss John Updike, Tracy Austin, the Maine lobster, the dictionary and John McCain. That's the main upside about Wallace's essays. They make you learn about subjects you never even thought to look up before. DFW sucker punches you into education.
My favorite essays were those on Updike, Austin and John McCain. Whenever his subject is human, alive and well, Wallace makes a point of trying to expose the nature of somebody, doing his best not to judge and expose the crystalline truth about his subject of focus. The Tracy Austin essay for example decries the lack of authenticity that her memoirs suffer, but Wallace exposes from his own knowledge about the star, that she had the life material to make her story tremendous. Austin had been plagued by bad luck and injuries. She also lived in a troubled time for pro tennis athletes, but she somehow denies it and puts herself over the others. It's Wallace's refusal to do the same that makes Austin look pretentious. When talking about Senator John McCain, he draws a character arc around him, like in a novel, explaining how exceptional the man is to just be alive and breathing today. It's a touching and tender look from a writer with a wit so cutting that he can demolish whoever he feels like.
I can't overpass the footnotes who are again overbearing in this essay collection. Wallace talks about them at length in his interviews, saying their purpose is to break the linearity of the text. They confuse the hell out of me when I read them, but also when I don't, which makes me think they're not really suited for the written medium at the first place. Writing, fiction or non-fiction, is a mean taken to expose ideas, who are better understood if they are streamlined and clear. Sure, the footnotes are amusing and they are an expression of his hyperactive mind, but they weight down his ideas and sometimes turn me away from the text. The John Ziegler article interested me at the first place, but its chaotic structure and lengthy footnotes repelled me after a few pages.
Overall, Consider The Lobster, as much as every non-fiction work by Wallace, gets the job done. It makes me interested in non-fiction and new journalism and more or less provides an A-B-C of the genre. Despite his struggle against his own self, Wallace has a voice so compelling he could get you interested into New Guinea's seaweed bacterias if he wanted to. Whenever you're tired of your literary routine, may it be YA erotica or Proust, Wallace is going to lead you into a crazy off-road trip.
