Bøger af David Foster Wallace

'A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything' New York Times'Wallace is a superb comedian of culture . . . his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight' James Woods, Guardian'He induces the kind of laughter which, when read in bed with a sleeping partner, wakes said sleeping partner up . . . He's damn good' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian'One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory' Sunday TimesSomewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at the nearby Enfield Tennis Academy are ensnared in the search for the master copy of INFINITE JEST, a movie said to be so dangerously entertaining its viewers become entranced and expire in a state of catatonic bliss . . . 'Wallace's exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight, and he has deep things to say about the hollowness of contemporary American pleasure . . . sentences and whole pages are marvels of cosmic concentration . . . Wallace is a superb comedian of culture' James Wood, GUARDIAN

David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

The Pale King is David Foster Wallace's final novel - a testament to his enduring brillianceThe Internal Revenue Service Regional Examination Centre in Peoria, Illinois, 1985. Here the minutaie of a million daily lives are totted up, audited and accounted for. Here the workers fight a never-ending war against the urgency of their own boredom. Here then, squeezed between the trivial and the quotidian, lies all human life. And this is David Foster Wallace's towering, brilliant, hilarious and deeply moving final novel.'Breathtakingly brilliant, funny, maddening and elegiac' New York Times'A bravura performance worthy of Woolf or Joyce. Wallace's finest work as a novelist' Time'Light-years beyond Infinite Jest. Wallace's reputation will only grow, and like one of the broken columns beloved of Romantic painters, The Pale King will stand, complete in its incompleteness, as his most substantial fictional achievement' Hari Kunzru, Financial Times'A paradise of language and intelligence' The Times'Archly brilliant' Metro'Teems with erudition and ideas, with passages of stylistic audacity, with great cheerful thrown-out gags, goofy puns and moments of truly arresting clarity. Innovative, penetrating, forcefully intelligent fiction like Wallace's arrives once in a generation, if that' Daily Telegraph'In a different dimension to the tepid vapidities that pass as novels these days. Sentence for sentence, almost word for word, Wallace could out-write any of his peers' Scotland on SundayDavid Foster Wallace wrote the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System, and the short-story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Girl with Curious Hair. His non-fiction includes Consider the Lobster, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Everything and More, This is Water and Both Flesh and Not. He died in 2008.

Infinite Jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it. People die happily, viewing it in endless repetition. The novel Infinite Jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding addictions of their own. As the novel unfolds, various individuals, organizations, and governments vie to obtain the master copy of Infinite Jest for their own ends, and the denizens of the tennis school and the halfway house are caught up in increasingly desperate efforts to control the movie - as is a cast including burglars, transvestite muggers, scam artists, medical professionals, pro football stars, bookies, drug addicts both active and recovering, film students, political assassins, and one of the most endearingly messed-up families ever captured in a novel. On this outrageous frame hangs an exploration of essential questions about what entertainment is, and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment interacts with our need to connect with other humans; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. The huge cast and multilevel narrative serve a story that accelerates to a breathtaking, heartbreaking, unforgettable conclusion. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human - and one of those rare books that renew the very idea of what a novelcan do.

A collection of insightful and uproariously funny non-fiction by the bestselling author of INFINITE JEST - one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time. A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING... brings together Wallace's musings on a wide range of topics, from his early days as a nationally ranked tennis player to his trip on a commercial cruiseliner. In each of these essays, Wallace's observations are as keen as they are funny. Filled with hilarious details and invigorating analyses, these essays brilliantly expose the fault line in American culture - and once again reveal David Foster Wallace's extraordinary talent and gargantuan intellect.

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a sick sense of humour? What is John Updike's deal anyway? And who won the Adult Video News' Female Performer of the Year Award the same year Gwyneth Paltrow won her Oscar? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in his new book of hilarious non-fiction. For this collection, David Foster Wallace immerses himself in the three-ring circus that is the presidential race in order to document one of the most vicious campaigns in recent history. Later he strolls from booth to booth at a lobster festival in Maine and risks life and limb to get to the bottom of the lobster question. Then he wheedles his way into an L.A. radio studio, armed with tubs of chicken, to get the behind-the-scenes view of a conservative talkshow featuring a host with an unnatural penchant for clothing that only looks good on the radio. 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.

David Foster Wallace's fiercely original, bracingly funny first novel, reissued to coincide with his new short story collection.

By the author of "The Broom of the System". This is the story of the addictive power of a movie - "Infinite Jest" - and how it affects a Boston halfway house for recovering drug addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have budding addictions of their own.

Efter succesen med essaysamlingen “Dette er vand” fra 2014 har Claus Bech nu oversat et i størrelse tilsvarende udvalg af David Foster Wallaces noveller.Novellerne har den samme sælsomme svæven mellem det tragiske og det komiske som forfatterens essays. Og ligesom i ’Dette er vand’ er skønlitteraturens vigtigste funktion at pege på en “vej ud af ensomheden”. I ‘Oktet’ fx udpeges veje for det mellemmenneskelige i form af en pop-quiz, der opstiller og beder os om at forholde os til forskellige situationer, der kalder på empati for medmennesket. Desværre må forfatteren skrotte flere af de opstillede situationer, og det hele er tæt på at falde fra hinanden i den eksperimenterende tekst.Novellesamlingen indledes og afsluttes desuden af to depressionsnoveller, som endnu engang minder os om David Foster Wallaces tragiske selvmord i 2008.

Both Flesh and Not is an collection of essays and writing from the virtuosic genius David Foster WallaceBeloved for his brilliantly discerning eye, his verbal elasticity and his uniquely generous imagination, David Foster Wallace was heralded by critics and fans as the voice of a generation. Collected here are fifteen essays published for the first time in book form, including writing never published before in the UK.From 'Federer Both Flesh and Not', considered by many to be his non-fiction masterpiece; to 'The (As it Were) Seminal Importance of Terminator 2,' which deftly dissects James Cameron's blockbuster; to 'Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young', an examination of television's effect on a new generation of writers, the writing collected here swoops from erudite literary discussion to open-hearted engagement with the most familiar of our twentieth-century cultural references.A celebration of Wallace's great loves - for language, for precision, for meaning - and a feast of enjoyment for his fans, Both Flesh and Not is a fitting tribute to this writer who was never concerned with anything less important than what it means to be alive.Praise for David Foster Wallace:'A visionary, a craftsman, a comedian . . . he's in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us' Zadie Smith'Wallace's essays brim with cerebral energy, acute observation and fizzing wit. Enviably good' Sunday Times'Wallace's exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight . . . a superb comedian of culture' Guardian, James WoodDavid Foster Wallace wrote the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System, and the short-story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Girl with Curious Hair. His non-fiction includes Consider the Lobster, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Everything and More, This is Water and Both Flesh and Not. He died in 2008.

The bestselling author of "Infinite Jest" takes on the 2,000 year-old quest to understand infinity. Wallace brings his considerable talents to the history of one of math's most enduring puzzles: the seemingly paradoxical nature of infinity.

A visionary, a craftsman, a comedian ... He can do anything with a piece of prose, and it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what has passed up till now as 'modern fiction'. He's so modern he's in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him' ZADIE SMITHA recognised master of form and a brilliant recorder of human behaviour, David Foster Wallace has been hailed as 'the most significant writer of his generation' (TLS). Each new book confirms and extends his genius, and this new short story collection is no exception. In the stories that make up OBLIVION, David Foster Wallace conjoins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite convolutions of self-consciousness - a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his.'Wallace's talent is such that you can't help wondering: how good can he get?' TIME OUT

David Foster Wallace begik selvmord i 2008 i en alder af blot 46 år. Inden da havde han med romanen ’Infinite Jest’ etableret sig som det vigtigste skønlitterære navn i sin generation. Sideløbende med sine romaner og noveller skrev Wallace gennem hele karrieren essays og journalistiske reportager. Disse tekster er helt anderledes tilgængelige end hans litterære eksperimenter, og de er blevet læst bredt og har haft en kolossal indflydelse på forfattergenerationen, der tæller blandt andre Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers og Zadie Smith.Det mest kendte essay, ’Noget muligvis sjovt, jeg sikkert aldrig vil gøre igen’, er en rasende underholdende skildring af Wallaces oplevelser under et luksuskrydstogt i Caribien. Her tegnes et på én gang morsomt og forstemmende portræt af en amerikansk forlystelsesindustri, hvor man ikke bare har mulighed for, men nærmest er tvunget til at have det sjovt. Med i bogen er også en berømt tekst om tennisgeniet Roger Federer, en reportage fra John McCains kampagne for at blive republikanernes præsidentkandidat i 2000, Wallaces indædte opgør med den litterære postmodernisme samt titelessayet, som er en slags kondenseret udtryk for den måske vigtigste essens, man kan uddrage af Wallaces forfatterskab: en opfordring til, at vi sætter os ud over vores solipsistiske og søvngængeragtige standardindstilling, hvor vi er centrum i vores egen lille verden, og i stedet forholder os nysgerrigt, åbent og empatisk til vores omverden og medmennesker.

Brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction writings by "one of America's most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review): Both Flesh and Not gathers fifteen of Wallace's seminal essays, all published in book form for the first time.Never has Wallace's seemingly endless curiosity been more evident than in this compilation of work spanning nearly 20 years of writing. Here, Wallace turns his critical eye with equal enthusiasm toward Roger Federer and Jorge Luis Borges; Terminator 2 and The Best of the Prose Poem; the nature of being a fiction writer and the quandary of defining the essay; the best underappreciated novels and the English language's most irksome misused words; and much more.Both Flesh and Not restores Wallace's essays as originally written, and it includes a selection from his personal vocabulary list, an assembly of unusual words and definitions.

The twenty-two essays in this powerful collection -- perhaps the most diverse in the entire series -- come from a wide variety of periodicals, ranging from n + 1 and PMS to the New Republic and The New Yorker, and showcase a remarkable range of forms. Read on for narrative -- in first and third person -- opinion, memoir, argument, the essay-review, confession, reportage, even a dispatch from Iraq. The philosopher Peter Singer makes a case for philanthropy; the poet Molly Peacock constructs a mosaic tribute to a little-known but remarkable eighteenth-century woman artist; the novelist Marilynne Robinson explores what has happened to holiness in contemporary Christianity; the essayist Richard Rodriguez wonders if California has anything left to say to America; and the Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson attempts to find common ground with the evangelical community.In his introduction, David Foster Wallace makes the spirited case that "many of these essays are valuable simply as exhibits of what a first-rate artistic mind can make of particular fact-sets -- whether these involve the 17-kHz ring tones of some kids' cell phones, the language of movement as parsed by dogs, the near-infinity of ways to experience and describe an earthquake, the existential synecdoche of stagefright, or the revelation that most of what you've believed and revered turns out to be self-indulgent crap.”

L’aclamat i malaguanyat escriptor David Foster Wallace reflexiona sobre alguns dels aspectes més importants de la vida en aquest manifest agut i profund. A mesura que busca respostes a preguntes gens senzilles, plasma les seves creences i deduccions sobre la naturalesa humana i dissecciona sense complexos una de les decisions més importants i alhora inconscients que prenem constantment: què pensem del món que ens envolta i de quina manera ho fem. Escrit amb l’intel·lecte i l’humor inconfusible de l’autor, L’aigua és això ens interpel·la sobre els reptes de la vida diària i ens ofereix reflexions provocadores que ens renoven a cada lectura.

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of John McCain's 2000 presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,' a dark, hilarious series of imagined interviews with men on the subject of their relations with women.Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the absurd, the surprising, and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will enthrall DFW fans, and provides a perfect introduction for new readers.

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, "e;A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again,"e; excerpts from his novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King, and legendary stories like "e;The Depressed Person."e; 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, "e;The View from Planet Trillaphon as Seen In Relation to the Bad Thing"e; 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 "e;one of America's most daring and talented writers"e; (Los Angeles Times Book Review) whose work was full of humor, insight, and beauty.

Brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction writings by "e;one of America's most daring and talented writers."e; (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Both Flesh and Not gathers fifteen of Wallace's seminal essays, all published in book form for the first time.Never has Wallace's seemingly endless curiosity been more evident than in this compilation of work spanning nearly 20 years of writing. Here, Wallace turns his critical eye with equal enthusiasm toward Roger Federer and Jorge Luis Borges; Terminator 2 and The Best of the Prose Poem; the nature of being a fiction writer and the quandary of defining the essay; the best underappreciated novels and the English language's most irksome misused words; and much more.Both Flesh and Not restores Wallace's essays as originally written, and it includes a selection from his personal vocabulary list, an assembly of unusual words and definitions.

The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has.The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time."The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon

This brilliant and hilarious new collection of essays is offered by the award-winning author of the bestselling "Infinite Jest."

In this exuberantly praised book - a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner - David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.

In the stories that make up this exuberantly praised collection, Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness--a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his.

David Foster Wallace blev sin generations vigtigste skønlitterære navn med romanen ‘Infinite Jest’, men stor anseelse nyder også hans essays, der på dansk blev samlet i ‘Dette er vand’ (2014), og hans noveller, som hermed får sin egen samling.Der indledes med den tidlige novelle “Planeten Trillafon og dens stilling i forhold til det værste” – en selvbiografisk skildring af den ubærlige smerte ved depression og den medicinske behandling herfor. Novellen er en uhyggelig forudskikkelse af den psykiske nedtur, der ledte frem til forfatterens selvmord i 2008, og sammen med den sidste tekst, “Gode Gamle Neon”, der ligeledes kredser om den depressives sindstilstand, danner den en dyster ramme for bogen.Imellem disse to noveller præsenteres en række eksperimenterende tekster, der bevæger sig vidt omkring i følelsesregisteret. “Min optræden” er en urkomisk fortælling om skuespillerinden Edilyn, der til sin store skræk inviteres til at optræde i superironikeren David Lettermans legendariske talkshow. Titelnovellen “Små udtryksløse dyr” om Jeopardy-fænomenet Julie tager ligeledes afsæt i medieverdenens facadespil.Vi får to af forfatterens berygtede “Interviews med ækle mænd” – i det første fortæller en mand om sin dybe skam og væmmelse ved sin hårdtarbejdende fars mangeårige arbejde som toiletpasser, og i det andet forsøger hovedpersonen at overbevise den umælende interviewer (og os) om, at hans ‘romantiske’ forhold til et psykisk skadet voldtægtsoffer på ingen måde udgør en kynisk udnyttelse af et såret medmenneske. “Glemsel” skildrer en banal ægteskabelig konflikt, hvor den pedantiske og møgirriterende jegfortæller ikke vil godtage sin hustrus anklager om, at han snorker.På tragisk og morsom vis kredser Foster Wallace i mange af novellerne om et kardinaltema i forfatterskabet: fejlslagen kommunikation mellem mennesker og den dermed forbundne ensomhed og isolation. Men sjældent i verdenslitteraturen er disse dystre temaer behandlet med så stor vitalitet og ekvilibrisme.

“Dette er vand” har haft en mærkværdig skæbne som tekst. Den startede som en tale og er endt som David Foster Wallaces mest læste og berømte tekst - måske fordi han heri kredser om livets mening og meningsløshed og også om selvmord - som han selv endte med at begå i 2008 i en alder af blot 46 år. Oprindeligt var den en afgangstale til de studerende på Kenyon College, men efter Wallaces død har den jordnære og ligefremme tekst fået sit eget liv som en slags kondenseret udtryk for den måske vigtigste lektie, man kan lære af Wallaces forfatterskab: en opfordring til, at vi prøver at sætte os ud over vores solipsistiske og søvnhængeragtige standardindstilling, hvor vi selv er i centrum i vores egen lille verden, og i stedet forholder os nysgerrigt, åbent og empatisk til vores omverden og medmennesker.