The David Foster Wallace Reader

By: David Foster Wallace

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff, David Foster Wallace, Sally Foster Wallace, Sean Pratt, Kristine Hvam, Ben Shenkman, Bobby Cannavale

Length: 48 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Where do you begin with a writer as original and brilliant as David Foster Wallace? Here - with a carefully considered selection of his extraordinary body of work, chosen by a range of great writers, critics, and those who worked with him most closely. This volume presents his most dazzling, funniest, and most heartbreaking work - essays like his famous cruise-ship piece, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," excerpts from his novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King, and legendary stories like "The Depressed Person".

Wallace's explorations of morality, self-consciousness, addiction, sports, love, and the many other subjects that occupied him are represented here in both fiction and nonfiction. Collected for the first time are Wallace's first published story, "The View from Planet Trillaphon as Seen In Relation to the Bad Thing" and a selection of his work as a writing instructor, including reading lists, grammar guides, and general guidelines for his students.

A dozen writers and critics, including Hari Kunzru, Anne Fadiman, and Nam Le, add afterwords to favorite pieces, expanding our appreciation of the unique pleasures of Wallace's writing. The result is an astonishing volume that shows the breadth and range of "one of America's most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) whose work was full of humor, insight, and beauty.

©2014 David Foster Wallace (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Wallace is an astonishing storyteller whose fiction reminds us why we learned how to read in the first place." (Andrew Ervin, San Francisco Chronicle)

"One of the most influential writers of his generation." (Timothy Williams, The New York Times)

"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." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

A True Gift for any DFW Fan

It's perfect. It's perfect it's perfect. Blend of DFW readings and readings by others with varied footnote styles. Love it love it love it.

The Decisive Collection

a bit of a slog, but if you make it through you'll understand why DFW is one of the greatest writers of our generation.

I have become a devoted fan/admirer of Wallace.

A great representative selection of Wallace's work. I've read much of it before but I could read it 20 times again.

Wonderful and amazing

The odd squawks and pedantic piffle about no TOC or no titles are well ignored as they have nothing to do with the brilliance of this collection. Just listen and let the DFW prose roll over and through you. Stunning. Enjoy.

Just Wiw!

A Writing tour de force that left me amazed. What a talent! A great sampling from a superb writer

Great for teachers!

What a treasure! I teach David Foster Wallace's nonfiction to my international baccalaureate classes. Students read the essays one by one and then we discuss them in Socratic circles or as a whole group. However, I realized that my students could easily make an audible account and use their "freebie" to purchase this book. Even my most reluctant readers, the ones I thought weren't really interested in Wallace, have been turned on to his wit, his humor, his irony, and--most of all--his brilliant structural acumen. Thank you, DFW, for helping to inspire my young writers.

The nonfiction is the best

David Foster Wallace was a brilliant writer. His command of English is as good as it gets and this tome (48 hours and 45 minutes in Audible) is often difficult but in the end rewarding. The fiction is particularly strange and the theme of characters who are deeply psychologically flawed is both ironic and at times tedious. He is a great fan of irony, the ultimate being his struggles with psychiatric issues that plagued and ultimately ended his life. That being said, it is mentioned that at some point Mr. Wallace decided he could no longer write fiction. That is when he really shines. His essays on the Illinois State Fair and taking a seven day luxury cruise are hilarious. His writing on English and literature is superb. His essay on Roger Federer at the end is perhaps the best piece of writing about tennis or any sport. It is unfortunate that the editors decided not to use his other fascinating ruminations on tennis. Yes, this is way too much for an "introduction" to David Foster Wallace, but is a pleasure to hear (or read) a master wordsmith at the top of his game.

F'n Awesome!

The writing is beautiful, brilliant, genius. I laughed with and cried for the author. The choice of narrators, perfect!

Like listening to Mozart...or Led Zepplin

David Foster Wallace is a as good a writer as I've ever read, maybe the best. This collection of pieces of his work, some fiction, some not, could work as a sampler for someone who has never read or heard his work. Most of the narrators are good...but Robert Petkoff narrates Mr Wallace's work with a style and tone, that, to these old ears, is like listening to the best music I ever heard. Although I tend to like Mr. Wallace's fiction better than his essays, ("Infinite Jest" is the best novel I have ever read/heard) listening to 40 plus hours of The DFW Reader, seemed like being on one of those carnival rides that you wish would last for hours and is over in seconds. And, you want to right back and do it, again.

It takes a lot for me to be spellbound

I've been listening to books on audible for almost 4 years. Lots of good books; some I didn't like. Some really good ones narrated by the authors. This author was new to me and I've been spellbound at his craft and facility in using the English language to communicate things in an entirely original way. For part of the book I felt that I was experiencing a play because the narrator so got into the plot he used props to enhance his performance. Wow.