By now, everyone has heard that David Foster Wallace committed suicide Friday; Sarah notes that the news was at the top of twitter on Saturday. I have read him only in bits and pieces, many times almost buying Infinite Jest but always too daunted by its size and the commitment I’d have to make to it. Others must have been in the same boat — it’s now #20 on Amazon’s bestseller list.
I can’t say much about him — others are far more qualified — but I liked what I read, I admired his work, have no animosity toward footnotes (or endnotes), and I wish he’d found a way to keep on keeping on.
Today I’ve been reading some of his work that’s available online.
“Good People,” The New Yorker, February 2007
“Federer as Religious Experience,” New York Times, August 2006
Kenyon commencement speech, May 2005
“Incarnations of Burned Children,” Esquire, November 2000
“The Weasel, 12 Monkeys and a Shrub: Seven Days in the Life of the Late, Great John McCain,” Rolling Stone, April 2000
