Both Flesh and Not
Essays

Another collection of essays that reminded me of After Henry by Joan Didion which I recently read as well. This collection of essays was also really well written yet I found some of it boring, especially the two on tennis. I honestly hate watching sports except maybe soccer and regardless of that el......more

I have a confession. Although of course* I didn’t want (or expect) to dislike this book, at all, I did want to be able to say something that proves I could be brusque with/critical of DFW just as easily as I could gush over/laud him. I wanted to be able to establish my Howling fandom by accentuating......more

Consider the B-sides As often with posthumous collections, Both Flesh and Not suffers slightly from the fact that these essays were bound together for the simple reason of producing another book to fill the shelves and minds of DFW’s perfervid fans and readers. It was only fitting to release another......more

Not quite up there with ASFTINDA or CTL in terms of sheer stuck-to-the-chair-then-flung-off-the-same-chair-in-squeeing-delight pleasure factor, but BFAN is arguably a more eclectic collection than either, treating us to one courtside tennis feature, one neurotic backstage tennis featurette, an unsur......more

Not sure if I'd recommend this one. It's DFW, and yes, it's witty, acerbic, articulate, et. al. but the items under discussion did not engage me in the way that Lobster, and Supposedly Fun Thing did in their turn. I'd therefore call this his least successful collection. They padded the thing with ex......more