The footnote-loving author tackles subjects ranging from pornography to conservative talk radio in his latest collection of essays.
Critic Reviews
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Favorable
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Christian Science Monitor Peter Grier
Oddly fascinating.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Christopher Tayler
After a while, though, his sense of humour creeps up on you - his essays are very funny - and then you start to realise that he's amazingly thoughtful and self-deprecating, and, most of all, sincere.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Pankaj Mishra
Happily, Wallace's dazzling powers of description often redeem his bloggerlike tendency to run on.
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Favorable
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Booklist Mark Eleveld
When Wallace is on the mark, few can compare in craft and craftiness. [15 Dec 2005, p.14]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe John Freeman
[A] rabidly intelligent collection.
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Wallace seems capable of riffing endlessly and hilariously on just about any subject, however absurd... But when he finds a subject he can take even semiseriously, Wallace ascends to new heights.
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Favorable
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Flak Matt Hanson
This is Wallace's unique magic: To be totally erudite and obscenely well educated, use it to write, yet not let any of it become pompous or pretentious or arrogant in any way.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Steven E. Alford
David Foster Wallace has once again cleaned out his desk drawer, and boy are we the lucky ones.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Steve Almond
"Lobster" contains a number of heady pieces, including a lengthy discourse on American usage. But Wallace's dazzling versatility derives from his willingness to locate meaning within settings often dismissed as unserious. [18 Dec 2005, p.R3]
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Favorable
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The New York Times Michiko Kakutani
Like his best fiction, it reminds the reader of both his copious literary gifts and his keen sense of the absurdities of contemporary life in America at the cusp of the millennium.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Keith Phipps
It's all done with a light touch that belies a rigorous construction in which every detail counts.
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Favorable
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Village Voice R.C. Baker
Wallace's dense style is a homeopathic antidote to our verbose information-overloaded age.
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Mixed
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Publishers Weekly
A writer this gifted doesn't need such cleverness. [10 Oct 2005, p.49]
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Mixed
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San Francisco Chronicle Brendan Wolfe
So the essays in "Consider the Lobster" ultimately ring hollow; that doesn't mean they aren't loads of fun.
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Unfavorable
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New York Observer Adam Begley
A collection of 10 essays, most of them mediocre, none of them first-rate. [12 Dec 2005, p.11]
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