Both Flesh and Not, David Foster Wallace
Both Flesh and Not, David Foster Wallace
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Both Flesh and Not
Essays

Author: David Foster Wallace

Narrator: Robert Petkoff, Katherine Kellgren

Unabridged: 9 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/06/2012

Synopsis

Fifteen brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction seminal essays and nonfiction pieces by bestselling author David Foster Wallace that explores tennis, literature, philosophy, and popular culture with his signature blend of intellectual depth, humor, and relentless curiosity."one of America's most daring and talented writers." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on January 07, 2020

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

Goodreads review by Jakob J. on August 10, 2024

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

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on November 24, 2012

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

Goodreads review by MJ on February 16, 2013

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

Goodreads review by L.S. on December 01, 2020

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

Quotes

"A novelist with the industrial-strength intellectual chops to theorize even our resolutely anti-intellectual age....Wallace's ear for dialogue was unmatched in contemporary fiction."—Time

“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

“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.”—New York Times

“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

“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

"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"

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