41st out of 135 books
—
98 voters
Girl With Curious Hair
Girl with Curious Hair is replete with David Foster Wallace's Remarkable and unsettling reimaginations of reality. From the eerily "real," almost holographic evocations of historical figures like Lyndon Johnson and overtelevised game-show hosts and late-night comedians to the title story, where terminal punk nihilism meets Young Republicanism, Wallace renders the...more
Paperback, 373 pages
Published
March 19th 1996
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published 1989)
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Difficult, brilliant, jarring, funny, ironically earnest and earnestly ironic with the limpidity of apostasy and the remote functionality of an egg-white toaster, I just wanted to grab myself by the front of my shirt and pull myself into this dizzyingly dexterous series of fictional contortions, wending through the labyrinth of self-aware, polymathic intelligence and meta-situations to find the author—standing apart from creations that the reader assists in imbuing with life with the melancholy ...more
Núria
rated it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
los que adoran el posmodernismo, los que odian el posmodernismo, los fans de la cultura popular,
Mi reseña propiamente dicha de 'La niña del pelo raro'
4 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 36
36 : 10 = 3,6
Ésta sería la fórmula que explicaría mi valoración de los relatos de 'La niña del pelo raro'. Por supuesto, esto no quiere decir absolutamente nada. Debí leer este libro por primera vez debe hacer unos cinco años. Desde entonces, aunque no lo parezca, debo haber cambiado. Aunque sólo sea porque ahora 'La niña del pelo raro' me ha gustado mucho más, s...more
4 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 36
36 : 10 = 3,6
Ésta sería la fórmula que explicaría mi valoración de los relatos de 'La niña del pelo raro'. Por supuesto, esto no quiere decir absolutamente nada. Debí leer este libro por primera vez debe hacer unos cinco años. Desde entonces, aunque no lo parezca, debo haber cambiado. Aunque sólo sea porque ahora 'La niña del pelo raro' me ha gustado mucho más, s...more
Edit again: So even though I haven't read all of DFW's work yet, I think this book would be a good place to start for someone who has read none. Originally I was telling people Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but that's just because that's the first one I read and I loved it. This collection is... fucking brilliant. It's beyond my ability to really say more. I remember I was reading "Little Expresionless Animals" the day before DFW died, and I was like "oh my god I can't believ...more
Forgot that I read this until I flipped through it at B&N today. Oddly, too, the B-52's "Mesopotamia" came on over the store's muzak system. I mean, seriously?
I ain't no student (feel those vibrations) of ancient culture...before I talk, I should read a book (Mesopotamia, that's where I want to go)
I ain't no student (feel those vibrations) of ancient culture...before I talk, I should read a book (Mesopotamia, that's where I want to go)
uneven is the word. also "too clever by half" is a few more words. I actually really liked most of the stories here, but the ones I didn't like (John Billy, Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way) were invariably the longer ones, so on a page by page basis I found it a bit whatever. there is a lot of metafiction stuff in this collection, which I am not so into. like, the longest story here (Westward...) is supposedly an extended satire of a postmodern short story by John Barth...more
I read this as an act of mourning for a writer I never understood. Nonetheless, his death shook me to the core for here was a man who had many things I've spent the last few years of my life desiring like an enthusiastic Bears fan. I'd attempted Infinite Jest earlier this year and had given up, feeling his verbal pyrotechnics would only end in nausea. Outpourings of grief on various web addresses painted an entirely new portrait of the man; one I had missed on my initial encounter with his work....more
Joshua Nomen-Mutatio
rated it
(The following came up in the comment thread of my review of Oblivion: Stories.)
The more I think about it the more I would recommend that people new to DFW start with his first short stories collection Girl with Curious Hair. His first two books (the novel/his college thesis paper (!)) The Broom of the System and the recently aforementioned short stories collection probably have a lower net level of run-on sentences and a more "accessible" style on the whole.
S...more
The more I think about it the more I would recommend that people new to DFW start with his first short stories collection Girl with Curious Hair. His first two books (the novel/his college thesis paper (!)) The Broom of the System and the recently aforementioned short stories collection probably have a lower net level of run-on sentences and a more "accessible" style on the whole.
S...more
These are dense, Pynchon-esque stories of unrooted observation that may be Wallace's most accessible work (being his second book). They have not aged well since 1989, however. Eighteen years ago, I loved the title story; today, not so much. Of them, only two in my view retain their whomp: the concluding "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," which falls short of brilliance only because it owes such an obvious bebt to John Barth, and the collection's best piece, "My Appeara...more
Don't hate on me...I know there are serious David Foster Wallace fans out there...I'm personally acquainted with a serious fan (she's a friend of mine who I happen to respect, especially when it comes to taste in books) who shakes her head when I tell her that I can barely tolerate David Foster Wallace...There's something too disgusting about this one...I'm in favor of authorial innovation, but I think Wallace's writing is just arrogant...He's passed off as a "writer's writer" but I re...more
The adult world, in Dave's opinion, has turned out to be a basically shifty, shitty place. It's risky and often sad and always wildly insecure. It beats him over the head, just how insecure and fragile is his place in his own lifetime. He knows, now, that nearly everything you call Yours in the world can be taken away from you by other people, assuming that they want it enough. ("Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way")
I have borrowed all the DFW books the library had ...more
I have borrowed all the DFW books the library had ...more
This book is very clever because every story is post-something. Little Expressionless Animals, Lydon, My Appearance- Post-Delillo. Luckily...- post Beckett. Girl with curious Hair- post-Easton Ellis. John Billy- post-Faulkner. Here and There- post writing workshop (okay, that's a stretch.) Say Never- post Roth. Everything is Green- I really don't know, but induction says that this, too, is post-something. And the mother of all the posts, 'Westward the Course of Empire,' is post-Barth (unfortunat...more
The sentence that broke me on page 235:
Sternberg had Mark so pegged by the time they'd all met as arranged at Maryland International Airport and departed via red-eye for Chicago's O'Hare, thence by complimentary LordAloft copter to Collision, Illinois, and the scheduled reunion of everyone who has ever been in a McDonald's commercial, arranged by J.D. Steelritter Advertising and featuring a party to end all parties, a spectacular collective reunion commercial, the ribbon-cutting revel...more
So, I've been made fun of for getting excited about something or other and then running around proselytizing to people in the name of whatever that something or other happens to be this month, or whatever, but for now I'm just going to blame such skepticism and hostility toward excitement on our oh! so cold postmodern world in which we're afraid of expressing or hearing expressed anything "real" or "genuine," to paraphrase the thematic thrust of the stories in Girl with Curio...more
It doesn't feel quite right to rate a book after only finishing 7/10 of its stories, but short of some traumatic illness that also makes it impossible for new books to be delivered to me, I will never finish this.
I am happy to have read it. Refusing to even attempt to read Infinite Jest based on its book cover seems narrow-minded, but now I have a good reason. I recognize that DFW was probably very bright, and funny, and his writing clearly connected with many people. But things fel...more
I am happy to have read it. Refusing to even attempt to read Infinite Jest based on its book cover seems narrow-minded, but now I have a good reason. I recognize that DFW was probably very bright, and funny, and his writing clearly connected with many people. But things fel...more
Somewhat spoilerish but not, 2nd reread: The opening story, "Little Expressionless Animals" always throws me for a loop (I seriously looked up whether or not Alex Trebek did all those thing upon initial read) & now feel is a little more superior/humanistic than "My Appearance" although I do imagine David Letterman as quite the dickhead. "LBJ" still absolutely floors me in terms of its heartbreak; this was the story I bawled to at a random hotel in south city. I've...more
"An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way." -Charles Bukowski
And that's why I find DFW so aggravating. He is both an intellectual and an artist, his prose meandering and wandering in and out of gorgeous simplicity to complex minutiae, reducing life's complexities to beautiful poetry and then inflating the smallest incidents into something hyper-inflated, engorged and bloated beyond necessity.
But he can brill...more
And that's why I find DFW so aggravating. He is both an intellectual and an artist, his prose meandering and wandering in and out of gorgeous simplicity to complex minutiae, reducing life's complexities to beautiful poetry and then inflating the smallest incidents into something hyper-inflated, engorged and bloated beyond necessity.
But he can brill...more
My main response to reading Wallace is that I’m not clever enough to read Wallace. I go through long periods in his fiction not knowing what the hell is happening and what the narrator is narrating. My second response is that Wallace wrote fiction with a universal appeal, inscrutable at times, but with a heart and a mind built by NASA. Despite this, despite his intention to strike a basic human chord, his fiction is largely the domain of the hyper-literate, or folks like me, straining to be hype...more
Well, I liked it said Florence.
I thought the title story was fucking hilarious actually and set the tone for the entire volume - from what I'd understood about DFWallace I'd expected someone a lot more serious rather than the Burroughsian dislocations to be found in this volume. 'Lyndon' I thought was not all that but did give me dreams about working for the Head of the Civil Service. The final story is obviously in dialogue (but that's what you're supposed to say!) with John Barth's 'Lost ...more
I thought the title story was fucking hilarious actually and set the tone for the entire volume - from what I'd understood about DFWallace I'd expected someone a lot more serious rather than the Burroughsian dislocations to be found in this volume. 'Lyndon' I thought was not all that but did give me dreams about working for the Head of the Civil Service. The final story is obviously in dialogue (but that's what you're supposed to say!) with John Barth's 'Lost ...more
You can't be cool unless you like David Foster Wallace. It's like a rule or something. You have to get it. You have to even refer to him by his initials: DFW. Like a password; so the other members of the cognescenti will know you are one of them, one of the cool ones. And, well, I would certainly like to be cool. So I gave this book a try. Actually, I gave the title story, Girl with the Curious Hair, four tries. I am sorry to admit that I am not cool.
Girl with the Curious Hair ...more
Girl with the Curious Hair ...more
Funny, smart, complex, surprising. Also a little hit-and-miss. Some of these stories worked for me in beautiful and boggling ways. Some never quite felt cohesive enough to work for me at all.
Breakdown: "Little Expressionless Animals," "Lyndon," "John Billy," "My Appearance," and "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" are the memorable standouts for me. And they stand out enough that the collection as a whole earns four stars r...more
Breakdown: "Little Expressionless Animals," "Lyndon," "John Billy," "My Appearance," and "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" are the memorable standouts for me. And they stand out enough that the collection as a whole earns four stars r...more
A strange reading experience. So incredibly uneven, with a high quality of writing brutally undermined by persistent gimmickry. There are GREAT stories in it ("Lyndon" is my favourite, and "My Appearance" and "Little Expressionless Animals" are both excellent), but some of them are just mediocre, and others ("Here and There," "Westward the Course of Empire") have potential that seems rudely undermined by their own cleverness and trickery-- which ...more
Well then. I'm not going to try to say anything too deep about this, but, woah. I feel like there is the rest of the book, and then Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way (the last and longest story). Which is quite something. The rest of the stories were often interesting and always clever and sometimes moving, but also ultimately felt a bit bloodless. I think.
Westward felt like something else altogether, and reminded me of the fact that I actually was quite into DeLillo for a sp...more
Westward felt like something else altogether, and reminded me of the fact that I actually was quite into DeLillo for a sp...more
"Little Expressionless Animals," "Lyndon," and "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way" are the highlights of this collection.
This is the least impressive book David Foster Wallace wrote. Broom of the System lacks the true flashes of transcendent brilliance that are present here on occasion, but it is a more complete and interesting and enjoyable work in its own right.
There is a sense of academic experimentation here. A sense of a write...more
This is the least impressive book David Foster Wallace wrote. Broom of the System lacks the true flashes of transcendent brilliance that are present here on occasion, but it is a more complete and interesting and enjoyable work in its own right.
There is a sense of academic experimentation here. A sense of a write...more
Mi problema es que yo le creo todo a David Foster Wallace: después de leer "Hablemos de langostas" y algunas otras entrevistas, realmente empatizé con su visión del mundo actual, y su cruzada contra el cinismo, la falta de profundidad, la falta de voluntad de invertirse uno mismo en las cosas que se hacen. Entiendo que leer por placer puede ser una actividad que a veces conlleve esfuerzo, por contradictorio que esto parezca. Y por esto mismo creo que mi problema con este libro es que s...more
One the one hand, short stories aren't really my thing. On the other hand, it's David Foster Wallace. The stories are amazing, the characters are strange and David Lynch-y, not to mention it contains a passage used in Alex's and my wedding ceremony! But in the end it's not my favorite by this author - it's still a really fun read though.
I learned yesterday that a professional acquaintance was a friend of Wallace's for many years. I'm rather glad I didn't know that last September, or my newspaper would have asked me to write a story about this person's thoughts on Wallace's suicide. Oh, who am I kidding. I can only think of two, maybe three, people on staff who would even know who Wallace was. Anyway, having a brush with an author, or knowing someone who knew an author, always makes me want to read the author's work. But I'm the...more
For some reason I figured Girl with Curious Hair, containing as it does stories from the beginning of DFW's fiction-writing career, would be far more experimental and avant-garde (to borrow some labels from DFW) than, say, Oblivion, a book containing stories from the latter part of DFW's career. Either I have a better grounding in DFW's style now than I did when I read Oblivion a year ago, or my preconception was totally wrong.
1. "Little Expressionless Animals." DFW's JEOP...more
1. "Little Expressionless Animals." DFW's JEOP...more
Ori Pilo
added it
I tried reading the book but couldn't even finish more than four stories. Maybe it's because I'm not American (and I'm sure this book is for Americans just as Etgar Keret writes a very special Israeli essence...), but I just couldn't enjoy any of the stories. They were written in a strange style and didn't really made sense or kept me interested.
It doesn't feel right giving this book a low rating just because it isn't my cup of tea, but that's my opinion. Hell, I'm not even sure if it is a cup o...more
It doesn't feel right giving this book a low rating just because it isn't my cup of tea, but that's my opinion. Hell, I'm not even sure if it is a cup o...more
Back before the cult started. At the time, these stories really seemed like something new and were very exciting to read for me. Worth a read, independent of all the hype and worship and self-indulgent work which has come since.
i was incredibly lucky to have david foster wallace as a teacher in undergrad; though i wish that i had appreciated him at 19 the way i do now. "little expressionless animals" particularly stays with me. so absurdly funny.
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David Foster Wallace worked surprising turns on nearly everything: novels, journalism, vacation. His life was an information hunt, collecting hows and whys. "I received 500,000 discrete bits of information today," he once said, "of which maybe 25 are important. My job is to make some sense of it." He wanted to write "stuff about what it feels like to live. Instead of being...more
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“And he wishes, in the cold quiet of his archer's heart, that he himself could feel the intensity of their reconciliations as strongly as he feels that of their battles.”
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“Hell hath no fury like a coolly received postmodernist.”
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Aug 21, 2011 08:43pm