{"title":"David Foster Wallace","description":"David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel,  Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again,  and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011.","products":[{"product_id":"the-pale-king-an-unfinished-novel-hardcover","title":"The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe \"breathtakingly brilliant\" novel by the author of \u003ci\u003eInfinite Jest\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Pale King\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Pale King\u003c\/i\u003e is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing.\" --Laura Miller, \u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101641642207,"sku":"9780316074230","price":47.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/cjZVQVZySmxLamp1MEdacjArbXYyUT09.webp?v=1781071879"},{"product_id":"brief-interviews-with-hideous-men-hardcover","title":"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWallace'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.\u003cbr\u003eWallace 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101666644191,"sku":"9780316925419","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/YkpWcDRzTHJrZ3pnWFoyWUVxTTg1dz09.webp?v=1781071950"},{"product_id":"infinite-jest-30th-anniversary-edition-paperback","title":"Infinite Jest (30th Anniversary Edition) - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe 30th anniversary edition of the virtuosic, wickedly comic modern classic about the pursuit of happiness in America, with a new foreword by Michelle Zauner, author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling sensation \u003ci\u003eCrying in H Mart\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. \u003ci\u003eCatch-22\u003c\/i\u003e is one; this is the other.\" --Stephen King, \u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, \u003ci\u003eInfinite\u003c\/i\u003e Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human--and one of those rare books that renews the idea of what a novel can do. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Uproarious ... Infinite Jest shows off Wallace as one of the big talents of his generation, a writer ... who can seemingly do anything.\" \u003cb\u003e―Michiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"The next step in fiction ... Edgy, accurate, and darkly witty ... Think Beckett, think Pynchon, think Gaddis. Think.\" \u003cb\u003e--Sven Birkerts, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003emagazine's \"100 Best Novels\" (1923--2005)\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102270591199,"sku":"9780316602921","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/FLARepZTDE9780316602921.webp?v=1781079255"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/david-foster-wallace.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}