David Foster Wallace

Som opvarmning til udgivelsen af David Foster Wallaces litterære hovedværk “Infinite Jest” udgives forfatterens fem mest kendte tennisessays. Foster Wallace var selv elitetennisspiller som ung, og han skriver således både indefra og udefra, med både konkurrencemenneskets indsigt og med den besatte tennisfanboy’s entusiasme. Han skriver såvel om superstjernen Roger Federer, om den ukendte Michael Joyce på kanten af berømmelsen og om sin egen tidlige karriere som “near-great” tennisspiller!

Una novela cr tica, divertida y reflexiva sobre la adicci n, el consumismo y la soledad de la sociedad norteamericana, escrita con gran sabidur a y sentido del humor. Un lugar: Enfield, Massachusetts. A cien millas de la Gran Concavidad, un yermo radiactivo lleno de beb s mutantes del tama o de aviones, criaturas sin cr neo y hordas de h msters salvajes. Una poca: el a o de la Ropa Interior para Adultos Depend, en el Tiempo Subsidiado, en una Am rica regida por el totalitarismo ecol gico de la ONAN, gobernada a su vez por la oscura Oficina de Servicios No Especificados, en guerra perpetua contra el ultraviolento antiONANismo de Quebec. Una instituci n: la Academia Enfield de Tenis, ultraelitista y donde impera una disciplina destinada a abolir todo placer. Una familia: los Incandenza. James Incandenza, ptico militar convertido en cineasta de apr s-garde, y su mujer, la promiscua Avril, que alimenta oscuras conexiones con la guerrilla de Quebec. Y sus tres hijos: Orin, genial pateador de f tbol americano y seductor transnacional; Mario, enano y deforme, cineasta como su padre y poseedor de una sensibilidad prodigiosa, y Hal, promesa del tenis juvenil y atormentado por un secreto terrible. Y una pel cula: El samizdat. El Entretenimiento. La broma infinita. Con el poder de enloquecer a todo el que la vea y destruir as la civilizaci n. El arma perfecta por la que todos se enzarzar n en la Guerra Final por el control de Am rica. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A critical, funny, and reflective novel about addiction, consumerism, and the loneliness of American society, written with great wisdom and humor. A place: Enfield, Massachusetts. A hundred miles from the Great Concavity, a radioactive wasteland full of mutant babies the size of airplanes, creatures without skulls, and hordes of wild hamsters. A time: the year of Depend Adult Undergarments, in Subsidized Time, in an America ruled by the ecological totalitarianism of ONAN, governed in turn by the dark Office of Unspecified Services, in perpetual war against the ultra-violent anti-ONANism of Quebec. An institution: the Enfield Tennis Academy, ultra-elitist and where a discipline aimed at abolishing all pleasure prevails. A family: the Incandenzas. James Incandenza, a military optician turned avant-garde filmmaker, and his wife, the promiscuous Avril, who feeds dark connections with the Quebec guerrilla. And their three sons: Orin, a brilliant football kicker and transnational seducer; Mario, a dwarf and deformed, filmmaker like his father and possessing prodigious sensitivity; and Hal, a promising young tennis player tormented by a terrible secret. And a film: The samizdat. The Entertainment. Infinite Jest. With the power to drive anyone who watches it insane and thus destroy civilization. The perfect weapon for which everyone will engage in the Final War for control of America.

David Foster Wallace's last unfinished work, a wise and unexpected tour de force "using the IRS the way Borges used the lipary and Kafka used the law-courts building: as an analogy for the world." --John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ When David Foster Wallace died in 2008, he left behind a vast unfinished novel--some 1,100 pages of loose chapters, sketches, notes, and fragments. This material was collated and published in 2011 as The Pale King, which became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. But the unfinished King did contain a finished novella that Wallace had already considered publishing as a stand-alone volume. It is the story of a young man, a self-described "wastoid," adrift in the suburban Midwest of the 1970s, whose life is changed forever by an encounter with advanced tax law. It is, as Sarah McNally writes in her preface, "not just a complete story, but the best complete example we have of Wallace's late style, where calm and poise replace the pyrotechnics of Infinite Jest and other early works."

Efter succesen med essaysamlingen “Dette er vand” fra 2014 har Claus Bech nu oversat et i størrelse tilsvarende udvalg af David Foster Wallaces noveller. Novellerne har den samme sælsomme svæven mellem det tragiske og det komiske som forfatterens essays. Og ligesom i ’Dette er vand’ er skønlitteraturens vigtigste funktion at pege på en “vej ud af ensomheden”. I ‘Oktet’ fx udpeges veje for det mellemmenneskelige i form af en pop-quiz, der opstiller og beder os om at forholde os til forskellige situationer, der kalder på empati for medmennesket. Desværre må forfatteren skrotte flere af de opstillede situationer, og det hele er tæt på at falde fra hinanden i den eksperimenterende tekst. Novellesamlingen indledes og afsluttes desuden af to depressionsnoveller, som endnu engang minder os om David Foster Wallaces tragiske selvmord i 2008.

“Dette er vand” har haft en mærkværdig skæbne som tekst. Den startede som en tale og er endt som David Foster Wallaces mest læste og berømte tekst - måske fordi han heri kredser om livets mening og meningsløshed og også om selvmord - som han selv endte med at begå i 2008 i en alder af blot 46 år. Oprindeligt var den en afgangstale til de studerende på Kenyon College, men efter Wallaces død har den jordnære og ligefremme tekst fået sit eget liv som en slags kondenseret udtryk for den måske vigtigste lektie, man kan lære af Wallaces forfatterskab: en opfordring til, at vi prøver at sætte os ud over vores solipsistiske og søvnhængeragtige standardindstilling, hvor vi selv er i centrum i vores egen lille verden, og i stedet forholder os nysgerrigt, åbent og empatisk til vores omverden og medmennesker.

'One of the most dazzling luminaries of contemporary American fiction' Sunday Times 'The most commanding and exciting and inventive rhetorical virtuosity of any writer alive... [He] nailed it like nobody else ever had' Jonathan Franzen'[He was] first among us. The most talented, most daring, most energetic and original, the funniest... This man got inside the world's mind and changed it for the better' George Saunders'Radical, impassioned, heart-and brain-stretching... His talent was so obviously great it confused people' Zadie SmithDiscover one of the most celebrated writers of our age - the visionary author of Infinite Jest andA Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do AgainFrom genre-defining reportage to genre-breaking fiction, David Foster Wallace captured the human experience as no-one else has - in all its multiplicity, sorrow and tenderness, wit and irony and deep, dazzling truth. Penguin presents the very best of his collected fiction and nonfiction, including extracts from his most famous novels, short stories and iconic essays such as 'Consider the Lobster'. Alongside these classic pieces is exclusive, previously unpublished work, and critical contributions from twelve prominent authors and thinkers, all commissioned specifically for this collection.

An expanded edition featuring new interviews and an introduction by the editor, a New York Times journalist and friend of the author A unique selection of the best interviews given by David Foster Wallace, including the last he gave before his suicide in 2008. Complete with an introduction by Foster Wallace's friend and NY Times journalist, David Streitfeld. And including a new, never-before-published interview between Streitfeld and Wallace.

Kummatukkainen tyttö on valikoima novelleja David Foster Wallacen kokoelmista Girl with Curious Hair (1989) ja Oblivion (2004). Maksimalisti, hysteerinen realisti, metamodernisti, kielioppinatsi, semifuturisti, metaironisti Wallacen häkellyttävä, omaehtoinen proosa on siittänyt leegion häntä määrittämään pyrkiviä leimoja. Olennaista on hänen teostensa elämyksellisyys ja ainutkertaisen tarkkuuden tuntu.

Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho-babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

An instant classic of American sportswriting--the tennis essays of David Foster Wallace, "the best mind of his generation" (A. O. Scott) and "the best tennis-writer of all time" (New York Times) Gathered for the first time in a deluxe collector's edition, here are David Foster Wallace's legendary writings on tennis, five tour-de-force pieces written with a competitor's insight and a fan's obsessive enthusiasm. Wallace brings his dazzling literary magic to the game he loved as he celebrates the other-worldly genius of Roger Federer; offers a wickedly witty disection of Tracy Austin's memoir; considers the artistry of Michael Joyce, a supremely disciplined athlete on the threshold of fame; resists the crush of commerce at the U. S. Open; and recalls his own career as a "near-great" junior player. Whiting Award-winning writer John Jeremiah Sullivan provides an introduction.

"David Foster Wallaces etterlatte roman er et mesterlig vitnesbyrd om oppløsning." Jon Rognlien, Dagbladet (Terningkast 6)Da David Foster Wallace døde i 2008 etterlot han seg et uferdig manus til et romanprosjekt - Den bleke kongen. Dette var noe han hadde arbeidet mer eller mindre sammenhengende med siden utgivelsen av Infinite Jest i 1996. Noen måneder etter forfatterens død i september 2008, gikk agenten hans gjennom det som fantes av etterlatte papirer. På skrivebordet fant hun en sirlig ordnet manuskriptbunke med tolv kapitler på til sammen over 250 sider. Man fant etter hvert mer materiale, og Wallaces redaktør, Michael Pietsch, begynte å sette det sammen til en mer komplett romantekst, som nå altså er utkommet. I sitt forord til boken skriver Pietsch: ”Alle som jobbet sammen med David vet hvordan han motsatte seg det å la verden få se et arbeid som ikke var gjennomarbeidet nok til å møte hans egne, strenge standarder. Men en ufullendt roman er det vi har, og hvordan kan vi la være å se? David er dessverre ikke her for å hindre oss i å lese, eller tilgi oss for at vi vil det.” Den bleke kongen er en roman som neppe er en roman i tradisjonell forstand, men mer en løst sammensatt samling bak- og forgrunnshistorier om et knippe mennesker som jobber ved skattemyndighetenes kontor i Illinois, en jobb som etter alt å dømme er preget av den mest sjelfortærende kjedsomhet, men som altså likevel, i Wallaces fantastiske prosa, vekkes til live som et fenomen som angår oss alle.

Where do you begin with a writer as original and brilliant as David Foster Wallace? Here -- with a carefully considered selection of his extraordinary body of work, chosen by a range of great writers, critics, and those who worked with him most closely. This volume presents his most dazzling, funniest, and most heartbreaking work -- essays like his famous cruise-ship piece, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," excerpts from his novels The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, and The Pale King, and legendary stories like "The Depressed Person." Wallace's explorations of morality, self-consciousness, addiction, sports, love, and the many other subjects that occupied him are represented here in both fiction and nonfiction. Collected for the first time are Wallace's first published story, "The View from Planet Trillaphon as Seen In Relation to the Bad Thing" and a selection of his work as a writing instructor, including reading lists, grammar guides, and general guidelines for his students. A dozen writers and critics, including Hari Kunzru, Anne Fadiman, and Nam Le, add afterwords to favorite pieces, expanding our appreciation of the unique pleasures of Wallace's writing. The result is an astonishing volume that shows the breadth and range of "one of America's most daring and talented writers" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) whose work was full of humor, insight, and beauty.