David Foster Wallace dead

I just read a few minutes ago that American author David Foster Wallace was found dead.

Now, I have to say right away that I had never heard of him before and (consequently) have never read any of his works. However, having done some very brief reading up, I have become curious. "Infinite Jest", in particular, caught my attention.

So, I'm sure there will be a number of people in here who know of Wallace and have read his work. What can you tell me about it?

 

So, nobody knew this guy?

 

Oh wow...I had no idea! How sad.

I'm very familiar with the name, but haven't actually read any of his books, so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to help you out. He's incredibly well regarded as an author, though, so I'm sure checking out one of his books (and Infinite Jest is the best known, I believe) would be worth your while.

 

Crap.

David Foster Wallace was probably my favorite essayist of the creative nonfiction movement. His novels are a bit dense and difficult to engage with (as much metafiction is), but I loved his collections, especially "A supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Consider the Lobster". Other than that, I knew him mostly from Harpers I guess...

 

It's a strange thing, in a way, learning about somebody because they died. But such is life, I suppose.
I'll certainly look out for his works at the bookstore the next time I'm there.

 

^ If you're going to try to wade into his novels, I strongly suggest starting with Broom of the System, which was his first and probably most 'traditionally' structured novel. As the linked article indicates, his work gets more dense and self-referential as he went along (including things like page-long endnotes on linguistic theory), so it's probably best to start early and move up from there as you get used to the structure. I would personally suggest "A Supposedly Fun thing I'll never Do Again" as a good starting point, but those are nonfiction essays (some very fun and humorous ones though!).