false <![CDATA[The Broom of the System]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165604452m/6750.jpg 6750 10 Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, <I>The Broom of the System</I> stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore's great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho- babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality. 1140359 1987 The Broom of the System total:1646|5:344|4:682|3:456|2:135|1:29| 1646 6115 2492 191 0 3 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 14:11:58 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 10 10:14:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 5 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 08:46:16 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 13:20:03 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 07:06:44 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 23 09:47:26 -0700 2008 Infinite Jest."

That's probably the most obnoxious way I could possibly kick off this brief review of a book which, on its own terms, is very good. It's funny and clever, indubitably "smart". Some of the scenes are fantastic - for example, a finale that remi...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 01:02:52 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 16 21:41:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 17:33:48 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 03:11:27 -0800 2008
As a raving fanatic of DFW, I was surprisingly and to all contrary expectations let down quite thoroughly by his first novel. People say it's a mini Infinite Jest, but that's really not true at all. I mean there are budding and teasing similarities, but they are, in my opi...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Mar 28 20:59:38 -0700 2007 Tue May 15 08:19:11 -0700 2007 Infinite Jest. At 500 pages and a complicated plot with a lot of characters, this mini was plenty enough for me. There’s actually not much of a plot in the traditional sense of a story that begins at A and concludes at B. It’s an absurd story about a girl named...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 25 14:25:36 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 10 14:41:48 -0800 2008 Broom of the System has the advantage of being written by the talented Mr. Wallace, without the disadvantage of 612 additional pages and a few extra chapters of footnotes.

Infinite Jest, Wallace's masterpiece, is well plotted, well written, and rather profound--but it is difficult to kee...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 20:52:35 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 07:13:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 10:20:39 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 10:45:59 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 16:39:09 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 15:36:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 04 17:23:32 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 23:08:49 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 15:55:11 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 15:09:49 -0700 2009
And yet it never re...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 10:47:05 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 10:51:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 11:04:37 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 11:07:42 -0700 2007 0 1 false false Fri Oct 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 12:30:58 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 20 06:54:51 -0700 2008
How's that for indecisive?]]> 0 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 08:31:31 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 08:39:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jun 05 10:50:27 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 10:51:40 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Sep 08 22:03:44 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 22:42:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Aug 03 12:50:06 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 13:00:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Apr 03 11:51:19 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 12:14:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6750