In these stories, the author renders the bizarre normal and the absurd hilarious, from the eerily real , almost holographic evocations of historical figures, to overtelevised game-show hosts and late-night comedians. In the title story, punk nihilism meets Young Republicanism.
This collection of ten tales provides ample proof of his virtuosity for the uninitiated... This is not a writer for the squeamish... but his satirical mastery of speech patterns and his eye for the grotesque can astonish. - DAILY TELEGRAPH
Puncturing the veneer of power lies at the crux of this collection, and attention to detail illuminates the banal. Wallace's control of different voices is superb, given the individual style of each tale. - THE TIMES
It is his prose that really sets him apart; sometimes eerily banal, at others so densely observed you're scared to blink, and making ordinary situations seem strangely disconnnected from reality. Cleverness and verbosity are additional key ingredients, and the effect is often brilliant. - SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
A collection of stories as varied in length and theme as they are imaginative, and as downright bizarre as any collection by one author has a right to be. Truly funny surreal humour. - San Francisco Chronicle
David Foster Wallace is the author of the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System, the story collections Girl with Curious Hair and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster. His writings have appeared in Esquire, Harper's, the New Republic, New Yorker, Paris Review and other magazines. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Award for Fiction, the Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize and John Train Prize for Humour, and the O. Henry Award. David Foster Wallace died in 2008.