Rating: 
Summary: A Fast Foster
Review: All the tales are more than OK here,
but two are really with the genius touch...
Rating: 
Summary: David Foster Wallace
Review: David Foster Wallace is not the type of writer who writes for the mass-market reading public. That is by no means a bad thing. He is I guess what you would call a "writer's writer"; a writer who is fashionable to study in your graduate creative writing classes at Brown, but all in all is not really that fun to read. I've just finished (more or less) his inordinately self-indulgent compendium of postmodern stories (oblique references to our blooming age of popular culture) that is "Girl with Curious Hair." The collection has an auspicious beginning with a droll story of game show hosts and complicated lovers; then strays with the second story (about an Account Representative giving the Vice President of Overseas Production CPR--why do I care? Not enough to peruse it so as to grasp the implicit meaning). Then it gets back on track with the title story (one of the two good stories, not counting the first) where an unlikely friendship cultivates between the apotheosis of 1980s yuppiedom and a group of nihilistic punks, a real treat. The other good story in this collection is My Appearance, which delineates a middle-aged television star's foray into the realm of late nate television mania--a smart and critical insight into the state of cynism in America. That was about all this book did for me; definatley not warranting the purchase price. I occasionally found Wallace's writing style witty and biting, but ultimately too bombastic and showy--ornamental to the point of shameless grandiloquence. I haven't read his much hallowed brainchild "Infinite Jest," so David Foster Wallace hasn't rightly merited a particular partiality in me yet, but I'll try some more of his material before I completely give up on him. This book just did not work for me.
Rating:
Summary: David Foster Wallace
Review: David Foster Wallace is not the type of writer who writes for the mass-market reading public. That is by no means a bad thing. He is I guess what you would call a "writer's writer"; a writer that is fashionable to study in your graduate creative writing classes at Brown, but all in all is not really that fun to read. I've just finished (more or less) his inordinately self-indulgent compendium of postmodern stories (oblique references to our blooming age of popular culture) that is "Girl with Curious Hair." The collection has an auspicious beginning with a droll story of game show hosts and complicated lovers; then strays with the second story (about an Account Representative giving the Vice President of Overseas Production CPR--why do I care? Not enough to peruse it so as to grasp the implicit meaning). Then it gets back on track with the title story (one of the two good stories, not counting the first) where an unlikely friendship cultivates between the apotheosis of 1980s yuppiedom and a group of nihilistic punks, a real treat. The other good story in this collection is My Appearance, which delineates a middle-aged television star's foray into the realm of late nate television mania--a smart and critical insight into the state of cynism in America. That was about all this book did for me; definatley not warranting the purchase price. I occasionally found Wallace's writing style witty and biting, but ultimately too bombastic and showy--ornamental to the point of shameless grandiloquence. I haven't read his much hallowed brainchild "Infinite Jest," so David Foster Wallace hasn't rightly merited a particular partiality in me yet, but I'll try some more of his material before I completely give up on him. This book just did not work for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: DFW is a phenomenal writer. This book is a good introduction to him for those that may not have the time or attention span for Infinite Jest.The title piece is probably the weakest story, with a stream of conciousness that just doesn't quite work right. Most of the other stories and beautiful and exhilirating, though. Westward the Course of Empire Makes Its Way (I think I got the title right, it's been a while) is the best short story I've read in years. The Jeopary Story (I can't remember the name; you'll know it when you get to it) is insane and beautiful. This is a must read. By the way, I just don't understand the unfavourable comparisons to Pynchon. I like Pynchon, but Wallace is on a different level. Comparisons are inevitable, I suppose, but to me, the similiarities just aren't that striking.
Rating:
Summary: When he's on, he's on; when he's not, he's not
Review: I have recently gotten into modern fiction, after years of reading Hemingway and others during his time and before. A writer whose work entertained me recommended David Foster Wallace in an interview, so I decided to get _Girl with Curious Hair_. Now I have another writer to admire. "Here and There" is a brilliant short story, and it appears in the 1989 edition of the O. Henry Awards. In this story, he takes a common theme (the breakup of a romantic relationship) and presents it in a beautifully original way. I also enjoyed "Little Expressionless Animals" and "Lyndon" -- though I'm not going to pretend to understand the ending to that one. The main problem I see with this book is the inconsistency of the stories. When Wallace is on, he's on; when he's not, he's not. I can't make any sense out of the title story. Plus, it's not as well written as many of the other stories are. The last story seemed like one big ramble, though there are humorous moments. Overall, though, this book is definitely worth buying. "Here and There" is a superb story.
Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Mixed Bag
Review: I read Girl With Curious Hair after Infinite Jest, so I thought I had some idea of what to expect. The stories in this book are so different from one another, and from Jest, that I shall now review them separately.
Little Expressionless Animals-This story blended the absurd business of game shows perfectly with the absurd story of a savant lesbian and her autistic brother. This was probably my favorite story.
Luckily the Account Representative Knew CPR- This story was the very crisp. It is short, and it is still detailed, but it is not an extravaganza like the others. It is a good story, though, and very clever.
Girl With Curious Hair- This story is hilarious and very perverse. My brother says it is pro-Republicanism, but I do not believe him. It may be too perverted for many people.
Lyndon- This is a good example of DFW's ability to recreate actual famous people. It is also a comment on the different kinds of love people have. I don't think that I understood it.
John Billy- John Billy is an excellent example of DFW's style. It is a simple story about the hometown hero Chuck Nunn Jr, told in a complicatedly Kansan dialect and with a bizzarre twist at the end.
Here and There- This is a story that I enjoyed very much. It is a dialectic account of the failure of a genius to love. It has an anti-ending similar to Infinite Jest, though, which many find troublesome.
My Appearance- This may be the best story in the collection. It explores the conflicting themes of sincerity/naivite and irony/cynicism. It also stars David Letterman.
Say Never- This story was about a man who cheats on his wife and then with his brother's girlfriend, and then confesses. It is told from his p.o.v., the brother's, and their mother's friend Labov. I didn't like this one that much, but the style is, as usual, amazing.
Everything is Green- This one is only two pages long and doesnt make any sense as far as I can tell. If it were more than two pages long, I might advise skipping it. But then, if it were more than two pages long, it might be good.
Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way- This novella made me think alot, about stories and postmodernism and commercialism. I liked it alot. However, like Barth's Lost in the Funhouse that inspired it, at the end I did not understand it.
On the whole, this is an excellent collection and there is something to like about each piece, except maybe Everything is Green. I recommend it and Infinte Jest to pretty much anybody.
Rating:
Summary: This book is funny, it's brilliant, it should...
Review: Ignoring all the fuzz about postmodern writing, I constantly found myself asking, what kind of impact did writers like Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo or William Gaddis might have had to other writers and, even more significant, what trace have they left in modern writing. In David Foster Wallace's collection of short stories, "Girl with curious hair", I found a large portion of my questions answered. I've just finished it in almost one sitting, and like so often, when the book you've just finished didn't turned out to be total crap, you start missing its characters.
I miss Julie Smith from the "Jeopardy !" show, I wanna stick to "Sick Puppy" and his punky friends visiting a Keith Jarrett (!) concert. I feel sorry for old pal Chuck Nunn, jr., who, after a car accident, had his eyes constantly popping out their holes (!!). I deeply felt for the woman who "appeared in the David Letterman show", don't be nervous anymore ! And then finally there's David Boyd, first boy and close friend of the president of the United States, Lynton B.Johnson ! David Foster Wallace presents each of the five stories in a different tone, a different style: There's the more traditional narrative form in the first story, pure satire (with shades of Brett Easton Ellis's "American Psycho") in the second, and a haunting yet nightmarish and illogical atmosphere in the third one. The fourth story comes with a dry, almost documentary-like kind of prose, while the fifth and last story (the LBJ story) once again returns to more traditional grounds. But don't worry: David Foster Wallace successfully manages to avoid pretentiousness or self-indulgence and never lets "Girl with curious hair" end up in a writing skill showcase ! This book is funny, it's brilliant, it should be regarded as a modern classic, but word comes around his other books are even better <...> oboy !
Rating:
Summary: DFW, Fiction and DFW and Fiction
Review: Okay, so here's the deal w/ DFW: the guy is extremely intelligent. he is also overtly aware of his intelligence and displays it all over the place. this bothers people. some things to remember and know about DFW: he was a philo. major as an undergrad; his first book was an investigation of the theories of ludwig wittgenstein, also an overly intelligent fellow and very hard to follow. Something else: in this collection of short-stories, the one titled "the girl w/ curious hair," DFW displays that he also knows one thing or another about fiction and that he has read a lot of it and doesn't like most of it. the title story, "girl w cur..." is a cool story is you think you like punks and nihilists and sado-masochism and other stuff, but it helps to know something about bret easton ellis's stuff, and to know that DFW hates (HATES!) BEE w/ some serious passion. Then there's the two stories about real-world characters, "little expressionless animals"--the opening piece, and i think it's pretty damn cool--and "lyndon" are investigations/explorations of using "real-world characters" (which for legal reasons has to be roundly denied) that was pioneered by the exceedingly weird and totally fun robert coover who wrote "the public burning" whose main character was richard milhouse nixon and was the first book to use a "RWC" as a protagonist. so there's that. then there's the piece of cathartic/psyhological diaglogue, in which DFW dips his fingers, there's "john billy" which is kind of a stab at faulkner but is also pretty cool and a really great read near the end (which i find is pretty true of most of DFW's stuff, it takes a while to build up and the guy is a straight-up bonafide (a word he hates) genius at bringing it all together and making you feel good when you finish a story). there's some other stuff in there (like "everything's green" which is only two pages but still isn't his shortest piece which was only like five lines, and both of those are cool). finally, there's the final fiction, a novella of about like 150 pages or something and it's all-over john barth (author of "the floating opera," "giles goat-boy" (which is way weird), "the sot-weed factor" and others) principally his exlposive collection of shorts, "lost in the funhouse." ytou should read that entire book (it's short) in order to really get what DFW is after in "westward the course of empire makes its way," and he's really after "metafiction," look it up. so this is all to say that DFW is writing fiction, and it's way cool fiction, well written and crafted, with interesting characters and solid "stories," but it is way helpful to know his sources. this kind of fiction--intertexual and in some ways needing a well-literary-read reader--is not for all. it's some damn fun stuff on it's own though. i recommend DFW to those w/ an interest in where "serious literary fiction" might be making it's way; to those who also enjoy and appreciate vollmann, powers, pynchon (seriously pynchon), gaddis, barth, maybe updike a little but not totally, and some other guys, yeah, mostly white males, but also cynthia ozick, whose fiction is slamming, especially her shorts which are hard to come by. so there's that, which is nice.
Rating: 
Summary: Foster: a craftsman of the human language
Review: Unfortunately, there is a very real difference between those with a gift for manipulating the human language and good 'writers'. Continents of difference. Wallace will often spend pages of deft and cynical description, and it takes the heaviness of the reader's eyelids to alert him to the fact that *nothing is happening*. Now, thinking something needs to be happening in fiction may be out of style among the Midwest creative writing programs this year, but all Foster seems to be communicating is "Look at me! I'm clever as you please!" Some of these stories almost feel like they began as one of his overly-written essays (once he spent twenty pages describing a tennis court, apparently in the belief all of his readers were Haitian refugees who only knew sugarcane fields) and then he added a few lines of dialogue. The language is very pretty, but I have hand-carved pretty crystal things which aren't even decent paperweights. If only his fiction were about something besides poking fun at the writing of fiction! It's something like literary self-gratification. It takes skill and effort, and it probably felt very good while he was doing it, but in the end he's left all alone, the only person who really knows the 'what' and 'why' of any of it.
Rating:
Summary: A great breadth of brilliant writing
Review: Wallace's breadth of effective writing is staggering. He paints from the endlessly complex to the economically subtle. His only crime that wages through several of the stories in this collection is the occasional detour into self-indulgence, but even this is pulled of with a sense of humor.
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