Modernism/modernity

Siskind, Jay Murray.
An Undeniably Controversial and Perhaps Even Repulsive Talent
Modernism/modernity - Volume 11, Number 4, November 2004, pp. 819-821

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Jay Murray Siskind - An Undeniably Controversial and Perhaps Even Repulsive Talent - Modernism/modernity 11:4 Modernism/modernity 11.4 (2004) 819-821 An Undeniably Controversial and Perhaps Even Repulsive Talent Jay Murray Siskind Department of Popular Culture, Blacksmith College Oblivion: Stories. David Foster Wallace. Boston: Little, Brown, 2004. Pp. 336. $25.95 (cloth). Understanding David Foster Wallace. Marshall Boswell. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. Pp. 232. $34.95 (cloth). For some critics of contemporary literature, David Foster Wallace is simply the most gifted writer of his generation. For others, his stature is more troubled: a writer whose obvious talents are being squandered in verbal hijinks and self-regarding mannerisms. The controversy that surrounds Wallace adds to the sense of timeliness that will attend Marshall Boswell's monograph, Understanding David Foster Wallace. With intelligence and aplomb, Boswell surveys the entire career. After a brief chapter that guides the reader through Wallace's life and background, Boswell proceeds to a synoptic account of Wallace's four major works, covering the two novels (The Broom of the System [1987] and Infinite Jest [1997]) and the two collections of short stories (The Girl with Curious Hair [1989] and Brief Interview with Hideous Men [1999]) which have established his formidable reputation. Boswell elects not to devote a separate chapter to Wallace's essay ...