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"Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. But here's what DFW has to say about fiction - and his life: The label most often applied to DFW is "metafiction". Lenore's grandma studied with Wittgenstein and there are philosophical puzzles and an enormous amount of fun to be had with words. That's about as much plot as you get, but plot is not the point. When Lenore's grandma, also called Lenore, disappears from her nursing home, Lenore tries to find her. There are running jokes galore, including the one about the telephone exchange malfunction whereby Lenore mostly gets calls meant for a sado-masochism parlour. Lenore Beadsman is the daughter of a baby-food manufacturer, working as a telephonist for Frequent and Vigorous, a non-functioning publishing company which is funded as a tax-deduction.
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What's more there is none of the assurance of his magnum opus Infinite Jest. However, in this debut fiction, there is a thin melange of plot, comic-book characters, psychological malignancy and stories within stories - it is not always a pleasant or easy read. DFW can riff on - for example - `vanity' for 20 pages to devastating effect, making you cry, laugh and think harder than you've thought all week - enormously powerful and wonderful writing. It is surreal, often achingly funny, and manages to incorporate devastating digs at a number of American shibboleths and institutions, especially the all-American family. This was David Foster Wallace's first novel, written when he was 26. This is the kind of novel that you can analyze, if you wish, and get into the philosophy, or you can just read it because it's hilarious. His short story writing, especially in Oblivion, can be inaccessible and frustrating, but luckily Broom of the System doesn't fall into either of those categories. For those that are frightened of David Foster Wallace for whatever reason, don't be. But really there is nothing quite like reading David Foster Wallace. The style is kind of like a cross between Don DeLillo's dialogue and Kurt Vonnegut's social satire. She has a roommate named Candy Mandible, a wide ranging and bizarre family (of whom, her brother, LaVache with his drug habits and prosthetic leg, is the best), and a bird named Vlad the Impaler. Lenore, a philosophy major, has an overbearing and super jealous boyfriend, who also happens to be her boss at a publishing house in which she works as a switchboard director. The plot is too complex to really go into totally, but it centres around the disappearance of Lenore Beadsman's grandmother, also named Lenore. But that's not to say that the novel doesn't have a cohesive feel.
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DFW has a love for incorporating many view points and different styles of writing in this novel alone we get transcripts, first person diary entries, stories within stories, third person and even a news release at one part. So I'm not going to spend time here comparing the merits of the two novels, since I can't.īroom of the System is a strange, off-beat, inventive, hilarious and philosophical novel. I wanted to read his two novels in the order that they were written, hence Broom of the System came first. First let me preface by saying that, no, I have not read Infinite Jest.