Wow! There was so much with this case that I didn't know that I didn't know! And the way it's written is so digestible, it's like you're just chatting with friends and they're telling you an interesting story!

That being said, the content is harrowing and hard to stomach at times, so definitely not a light read, just as a heads up. ( )

I did not fully understand almost all of this book (or, I sort-of understood most of this book.) If you're prepared for that, you may find this to be more than a three star book. My previous D.F. Wallace experience consists solely of "Consider the Lobster", which I greatly enjoyed.

Part of why I found this so hard to understand (and to enjoy) is that it really is a meta-meta-book, fiction-that-is-not-fiction-that-is. And I think Wallace was well aware of that; but it is hard to take, all the same. The book is rooted in, and a protest against/mocking of, a literary culture (or long fad?) that is now, at least in part, sailing into the past. And good riddance...

But, if you do enjoy postmodern (or is this post-post-modern) lit, then again, this might be more to your liking. ( )

Racconti di Wallace che, come tutti gli scritti di Wallace, non riesco a leggere tutto d'un fiato.
Amo D.F. Wallace, me ne sono innamorata leggendo una sua intervista, anni fa. Si era già suicidato.
Non è una lettura scorrevole, vi sono riferimenti ad eventi e personaggi estranei alla nostra cultura. Descrive la televisione americana, le strade americane, gli americani. Uno per uno. E ne fa ritratti talmente reali da fare sembrare ogni personaggio uno psicopatico. Ma è proprio così che è. E' proprio così che siamo.
Amo D.F. Wallace, ma questi racconti, dopo aver letto La ragazza dai capelli strani (che per inciso ha una chioma scolpita a forma di pene sulla testa, enorme), faccio decantare un po' le parole e, per il momento, passo ad altro. Fino a quando sentirò la mancanza struggente di D.F. Wallace e della sua ironica tristezza e me ne farò un'altra dose.

"A dream," says Alex Trebek to the doctor with circumflex brows. "I have this dream where I'm standing smiling over a lectern on a little hill in the middle of a field. The field, which is verdant and clovered, is covered with rabbits. They sit and look at me. There must be several million rabbits in that field. They all sit and look at me Some of them lower their little heads to eat clover. But their eyes never leave me. They sit there and look at me, a million bunny rabbits, and I look back." ( )

These are great but are (as others have said) no means a match for Jest. I really liked Lyndon and I plan to go back and read it again, along with a few others from this collection. I admittedly skipped the last story because 1) it seemed universally disliked not only by DFW fans but by DFW Himself and, 2) I've just got The Broom of the System on my shelf and I'm dying to have a crack at that.

I'll have to come back to this eventually, but for now, a comfortable 4 stars will do. ( )