David Foster Wallace
Both Flesh and Not
(Little, Brown, October 2012)
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. A sweeping, exhilarating collection of the author’s most emotionally immediate work, Both Flesh and Not spans almost 20 years of Wallace’s career and reminds us why A.O. Scott called him “The Best Mind of His Generation” (New York Times).
Praise for Both Flesh and Not
“But at their best these essays remind us of Wallace’s arsenal of talents: his restless, heat-seeking reportorial eye; his ability to convey the physical or emotional truth of things with a couple of flicks of the wrist; his capacity to make leaps, from the mundane to the metaphysical, with breathtaking velocity and ardor.”
–The New York Times
“Wallace often reads like an unlikely combination of Dennis Miller and Jonathan Schell, and this ironic/sincere dynamic exemplifies the crucial questions at the very heart of his project: How can we express our real feelings in a language that, like a worn-out bank card, barely transmits because of abuse and over-use, and in a culture where every utterance has a derisive two-second reverb?”
–The Denver Post
“…the opening essay “Federer Both Flesh And Not” by itself is worth the price of admission. If to that one adds “The Nature of the Fun” (his essay on writing fiction) and “Deciderization 2007—A Special Report” (his introduction to The Best American Essays 2007), the collection already beats most competitors hands down. There is a rare pleasure in reading Wallace at his best.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Scarily astute. . . . Published originally between 1988 and 2007, these essays demonstrate Wallace’s interdisciplinary approach to both pop culture and abstruse academic discourse…For Wallace devotees, these essays are required reading.”
–Booklist
“A collection spanning 20 years of Wallace’s nonfiction writing on subjects as wide-ranging as math, Borges, democracy, the U.S. Open, and the entire spectrum of human experience in between…Both Flesh and Not is excellent in its entirety and just as quietly, unflinchingly soul-stirring.”
–Atlantic
“David Foster Wallace left the essay form in a different state than it was in before he wrote. He wrote of Federer that he had ‘exposed the limits, and possibilities, of’ his sport. Wallace himself, with mystery and metaphysics galore, did no less for the essay.”
–Chicago Tribune Printers Row
“If you like essays, vocabulary lists (blepharitis! gastine!), footnotes (so many footnotes), and/or DFW, you need this.”
–Largehearted Boy
“One of the best writers of our time….If you’ve never read David Foster Wallace before, his masterful study of Roger Federer, included in this anthology, is an ideal place to start.”
–Marie Claire
“Like previous collections of David Foster Wallace’s essays, Both Flesh and Not displays the late author’s vast intellectual curiosity….showcase[s] Wallace’s ever-evolving, intimate, and often humorous relationship with language.”
–The New Yorker Page-Turner
“David Foster Wallace’s essays show a man struggling to figure out the complexities of discernment and judgment…It isn’t merely wonderful writing. It is a model of adult citizenship…In Both Flesh and Not, he is at the top of his game.”
–The Daily Beast
“The best passages are those that celebrate words and the author’s relationship with them….It is a treasure trove for those who love the complexities of language.”
–Time Out
“I doubt there’s a single person reading this paper who needs me to explain why they should be excited about a new collection of previously uncollected David Foster Wallace essays. His nonfiction is born out of the sort of bitingly perceptive but deeply compassionate humanity our world needs more of, and we should savor every last bit of it he left us.”
–Rian Johnson, writer and director of “Brick” and “Looper”
David Foster Wallace wrote the novels The Pale King, Infinite Jest, and The Broom of the System and the story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Girl With Curious Hair. His nonfiction includes Consider the Lobster,A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, Everything and More, and This Is Water.