Consider the Lobster

By: David Foster Wallace

Narrated by: David Foster Wallace

Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Long renowned as one of the smartest writers on the loose, David Foster Wallace reveals himself in Consider the Lobster to be also one of the funniest. In this program, he ranges far and farther in his search for the original, the curious, or the merely mystifying. He discovers the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the Maine Lobster Festival and confronts the inevitable question just beyond the butter-or-cocktail-sauce quandary.

Do lobsters feel pain?

He addresses this and other important cultural questions in four brilliant esasays from his latest collection.

In what is sure to be a much-talked-about exploration of distinctly modern subjects, one of the sharpest minds of our time delves into some of life's most delicious topics.

This collection includes the following essays: "Consider the Lobster", "The View from Mrs. Thompson's", "Big Red Son", and "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart".

©2005 David Foster Wallace. All Rights Reserved. (P)2005 Time Warner AudioBooks. All Rights Reserved. A division of Time Warner Book Group.

Critic reviews

"Wallace poses an unsettling challenge to the way many of us live now....This is strong stuff....It is Wallace's nostalgia for a lost meaningfulness...that gives his essays their particular urgency, their attractive mix of mordancy and humorous ruefulness....Few of his young peers have spoken as eloquently and feelingly as he has about the moral imagination that contemporary American life imposes on them." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Novelist Wallace might just be the smartest essayist writing today." (Publishers Weekly)

Awesome

One of the best audiobooks I've read all year. Love how the production team handled the footnotes.

great writing bad subject matter

this is a book of 5 essays and 2 of them are about the porn industry. if only one was about this gross place that might be okay, but 2!? too much of the book made me feel gross and creepy unfortunately. the other essays are great though, especially the titular one.

Great collection. Thought provoking.

I really, really enjoyed this. Each piece was extremelt thought provoking and interesting - challenging me to look at things from a different point of view. What I particularly loved was that David Foster Wallace narrated this himself. I feel like his own voice and tone added to each thought he shared.

Abridged

When I purchased this, I did not realize it was (significantly) abridged. It only has 3 essays in total.

Great Author Read

This was a fantastic author read, much better than most. Wallace is a brilliant writer and hearing him read his own work adds to the experience of these essays.

The structure of the audiobook follows that of the print book - 3 separate essays. Each is thoughtful, well-written, and very entertaining.

an excellent read

What made the experience of listening to Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (Selected Essays) the most enjoyable?

the varied topics

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

knowing DFW has passed away and will never write again

Which scene was your favorite?

the chapter on lobster

If you could give Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (Selected Essays) a new subtitle, what would it be?

subtlies by d f w

David Foster Wallace at his best

Where does Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (Selected Essays) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Anything by David Wallace is great, but specifically his two collections of nonfiction essays (this being one of them). The title piece is my personal favorite, but hearing him discuss the AVN awards is classic.

What did you like best about this story?

It's a couple of stories, so I'll just say it was both informative and entertaining.

What about David Foster Wallace’s performance did you like?

His dry sense of humor.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The title story regarding the Lobster festival made me think differently regarding what I eat, specifically lobster..

hilariously executed. literally.

how could it get any better than Wallace reading his own words--and footnotes!--in his own voice, with all of its own intonation.

Loved it!!!

So well written and thought provoking. I love all his books, but this one is even more enjoyable because DFW narrates it!

Lobsters are actually quite tasty.

Great mind delivers a branching, beautifully incongruous narrative with boundless cynicism and witty despair. If he and hitchens ever bred, the world would implode.