A Supposedly Good List

July 23, 2008 11:49 AM

I'm looking for a list of good but little-known books by David Foster Wallace. The list is by Wallace, not the books.

About ten years ago I read an interview online w/ David Foster Wallace. He listed a bunch of books all written in the last 30-or-so years that were mostly overlooked but really good (according to DFW.) This list included works by Denis Johnson (Angels), and David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress.) I think it also included either Omensetter's Luck or The Tunnel, by William Gass.

Obviously, my Google-fu has failed me. Any help would be appreciated. Also, feel free to throw in the MeFi-obligatory DFW's da bomb/DFW sux post...

posted by nushustu to writing & language (7 comments total)

Here you go.
posted by Siobhan at 11:53 AM on July 23 [1 favorite]

holy shit that was fast. And I can't believe I didn't think to look in Salon, a publication that I used to read fairly regularly.

Thanks, Siobhan!
posted by nushustu at 12:01 PM on July 23

To help with your future 'fu, that article is the first Google hit for ["david foster wallace" overlooked].
posted by Partial Law at 12:06 PM on July 23

gad. How embarrassing.
posted by nushustu at 12:32 PM on July 23

Also, feel free to throw in the MeFi-obligatory DFW's da bomb/DFW sux post...

This part isn't going to be allowed on AskMe, FYI.
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 12:57 PM on July 23

If you're interested, A friend of mine used to work for the Poetry Society of America and worked on a project to ask fiction writers about their favorite books of poetry. The article never got published (in the PSA's journal Crossroads), but one guy that responded to his letter (by scribbling on the soliciting letter) was David Foster Wallace. So, without further adieu, here is DFW's never-before-published list of his favorite books of poetry:

3-Way Tie: (mood dependent)
1. Bridges, ed., Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
2. Zbigniew Herbert, Report from a Besieged City
3. P. Larkin, High Windows
posted by mattbucher at 7:51 AM on July 24 [1 favorite]

NOT HERMITOSIS-IST:

That was my hope. Given metafilter's history w/ arguments about the relative merits of DFW's writing, I was trying some reverse psychology there, just to nip it in the bud.

mattbucher:

Awesome. I'm a fan of Hopkins. Thanks!
posted by nushustu at 8:10 AM on July 24