On a Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

I should say up front that this is my fourth Wallace — I’ve been working through the whole oeuvre and have been amazed by it. Before this came Consider the Lobster, This Is Water (which is really a lecture), and Infinite Jest.

The essays here are uneven; the weakest was his review of Morte d’Author. But the best of them — the title essay, “Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All,” and “David Lynch Keeps His Head” — are phenomenal. His powers of observation are precise and funny. Where most essayists are informative, offering new insight on this or that issue, Wallace has the uncanny ability to write about a specific experience so that it mirrors what living that experience is actually like. I’ve been to a state fair (Indiana, not Illinois) and I’ve been on a cruise, and from where I stand both are described exactly as they are.

I’m not sure his style lands for everyone. The maximalist, neurotic mode resonates with me heavily, and I hope it does for others — it would make me feel less alone if it did, though I’m not sure that’s true. I’d love to hear what other people make of it.