David Foster Wallace

A book for Mother's Day? The mystery of my mother's reading habits

2013-05-10 12:22:00

No two readers are alike. No two mothers are alike. And the only way to really find out what might be a good book to get your mother for Mother’s Day is to ask her what she likes to read. My own mother’s reading habits have always been a bit...

Stephen Colbert, Jennifer Egan and 'The Great Gatsby' [Video]

2013-05-10 07:19:00

On his show Thursday night, Stephen Colbert hosted a book club with distinct Oprah-like overtones: cozy chairs, yellow pillows, a pastel tie and chardonnay. The book at hand was F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." To discuss the novel, he...

Celebrate Thomas Pynchon's birthday with Pynchon in Public Day

2013-05-08 06:30:00

Happy birthday to Thomas Pynchon! The reclusive author� of "Gravity's Rainbow," "The Crying of Lot 49," "Mason & Dixon" and more turns 76 today. Unlike the attention-seekers that clog our cultural aqueduct, Pynchon isn't likely to show up on CNN or NPR....

Mixtape review: Chance the Rapper's stellar, infinite 'Acid Rap'

2013-05-03 16:45:00

This post has been updated. See below for details. An infinite jest, Chicago lyricist Chance the Rapper's stellar new mixtape "Acid Rap" begins with a woman's seductive voice -- chanteuse Lili K. -- uttering, "Even better than I was the last time, baby,...

Adam Johnson wins the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 2013

2013-04-15 12:28:00

The Pulitzer Prize in fiction, announced Monday, has been awarded to Adam Johnson for his book set in North Korea, "The Orphan Master's Son." The committee described the book as "an exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome...

Spring preview: 6 books and literary events in the spotlight

2013-03-08 13:00:00

Here are six books (and book events) to which I'm especially looking forward: a preview of the writes of spring. April 2 "The Flamethrowers" by Rachel Kushner Scribner Rachel Kushner's first novel, "Telex From Cuba," was a sensation: Set in the years...

Prefer not to? Kevin Smokler says you should reread 'Bartleby'

2013-02-19 06:00:00

It's almost as if Kevin Smokler found himself in 30-something detention: well into adulthood, he was sentenced to go back and re-read the books he read in high school English class. He might have escaped if he hadn't been passing notes in class written...

What's happening to CalArts' literary journal Black Clock?

2013-01-28 15:27:00

This post has been updated. Please see below for details. The California Institute of the Arts launched its literary journal Black Clock in 2004 with pieces by some of the best writers of the moment: David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender...

'Hell Bent' by Benjamin Lorr is a vivid adventure in yoga

2012-12-14 14:00:00

-------------------- Hell Bent Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga Benjamin Lorr St. Martin's Press: 312 pp., $25.99 -------------------- The sweaty, two-year odyssey Benjamin Lorr chronicles in...

'Tenth of December' by George Saunders is accessible but with deeper layers underneath

2012-12-28 13:00:00

-------------------- Tenth of December Stories George Saunders Random House: 254 pp., $26 -------------------- George Saunders is often described as a satirist. That's not inaccurate: How else do we account for, say, the title effort of his first...

Literary Death Match: Henry Rollins not big on spoken word

2012-07-12 16:36:07

Karl Rove likes reading Jorge Luis Borges. Yes, that Karl Rove.

2012-11-16 17:24:00

Karl Rove: Fox News commentator, conservative who caused consternation on election night, major Republican strategist. And fan of metafictional writer Jorge Luis Borges. Yes, really. The news comes from Rove's own website (via Twitter). Since 2010, Rove...

The 2012 Pulitzer Prize in fiction was awarded to no one. The finalists were announced to the public: "Train Dreams" by Denis Johnson, "Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell and "The Pale King" by David Foster Wallace.

2013-04-12 11:15:11

by D.T. Max (Viking: 356 pp., $27.95) The first biography of the novelist, who committed suicide in 2008 at the age of 46, Max's book is neither hagiography nor reassessment but something much more subtle and difficult: a consideration of the artist as a human being.

2012-12-13 13:04:19

"When he smoked marijuana he tended to masturbate a great deal, whether or not there were opportunities for intercourse, and the petroleum jelly kept him from returning to normal function all tender and sore." (pg. 21)

2012-02-03 13:15:52