book data
1,853 ratings,
3.73
average rating, 211 reviews
(more data...)
edit
published
May 1993
by Avon Books
(first published 1987)
details
Paperback, 467 pages
description
DFW's first novel. ISBN 0380719916 duplicates that of HarperCollins Canada edition but this is Avon Books U.S. edition with different cover.
find at:
Amazon • WorldCat • more options…
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fiction files redux: David Foster Wallace | 74 | 138 | 2 days ago, 10:26AM | |
| The Book Addicts!: Dan Brown/ Made Me Laugh | 11 | 40 | Oct 28, 2009 10:01AM | |
| New West Readers: Book Selection for November (and December too!) | 15 | 30 | Sep 29, 2009 06:26PM |
friend reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2,849)
All ratings
|
5 stars (390)
|
4 stars (779)
|
3 stars (514)
|
2 stars (141)
|
1 star (31)
|
avg 3.73
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Owns a copy
—
Read in January, 2009
I find it fitting in a initially intuitive and deeply, personally meaningful way that the one DFW book I've yet to read is his novelistic beginning and is going to be read last by myself; considering the horrible events of September 12th, 2008; considering the nature of things beginning and ending; considering the near-constant ruminations on such things being heightened in new and more profound ways all of the time; considering that the successive passage of time implicitly involves more and mo...more
Like this review?
yes
(6 people liked it)
13 comments
Read in January, 2008
This is a hard nut to crack. I decided long ago I needed to read old David Foster Wallace, and I wasn't feeling committed to the 1100 page chore of "Infinite Jest." As far as I can tell, he draws on three American literary traditions: the first is the American hysterical realist tradition that it helped to found (see DeLillo, Franzen), the second being the batshit tradition beloved by smart 18 year olds (see Vonnegut, Robbins), and the third being Thomas Pynchon, who is his own wonde...more
Like this review?
yes
(3 people liked it)
1 comment
Read in July, 2009
recommended to Davis by:
Momrecommends it for: Any literate individual
David Foster Wallace was once quoted as saying "The Broom Of The System seems like it was written by a very smart 14 year old". I respectfully disagree with the always self-degrading and self-conscious author (Rest In Peace). In fact, due the relative success of this novel, and his inability to utilize it properly, Wallace had a mental breakdown. The circumstances around this book, both before and after, are incredibly interesting, and regretfully, there is a whole lot of space here to...more
Like this review?
yes
(6 people liked it)
4 comments
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
philosophy majors
"It's no 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 reminds of the procession at the end of 8 1/2 - and some are deliciously cringe-worthy - for example, almost anything containing one Mr. Rick Vigorous.
But, at risk of belaboring this point, it...more
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 reminds of the procession at the end of 8 1/2 - and some are deliciously cringe-worthy - for example, almost anything containing one Mr. Rick Vigorous.
But, at risk of belaboring this point, it...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in September, 2007
this was published 10 years before Infinite Jest. much like in IJ, every single character in this novel is broken, defective, missing some vital piece. one is missing a leg, one is missing a penis, many lack morality, or empathy, or confidence, or even any self-identity. but in infinite jest, you end up really liking a bunch of them -- their defects make them lovable, or you love their good qualities in spite of their defects. but in this novel, i sort of grew to despise all but one. i pinn...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
1 comment
Incredibly Pynchonesque--so much so that I kept forgetting it was written by someone else--but it's a great book, so it doesn't matter. Everything's crazy but so believable--I think this is the world I want to live in.
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Disappointing--
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 opinion, very different novels concerned with different issues. First, The Broom of the System is mostly in dialogue without the sharp wit and rolling-on-the-floor-funny humor and the trademark myriad le...more
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 opinion, very different novels concerned with different issues. First, The Broom of the System is mostly in dialogue without the sharp wit and rolling-on-the-floor-funny humor and the trademark myriad le...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
2 comments
This book is supposed to be a mini 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 Lenore whose grandmother, also named Lenore and a former student of Wittgenstein, disappears from her nursing home. The young Lenore, coming from a fucked up family and with lots of issues, has a boy...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 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 keep momentum going throughout the entire tome (Not to say it isn't worth it.) Broom is well plotted, well written, rather profound, and sustainably engaging. While not a 'mature' work by Wallace, it tou...more
Infinite Jest, Wallace's masterpiece, is well plotted, well written, and rather profound--but it is difficult to keep momentum going throughout the entire tome (Not to say it isn't worth it.) Broom is well plotted, well written, rather profound, and sustainably engaging. While not a 'mature' work by Wallace, it tou...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
David Foster Wallace's books have had some pretty ugly cover art in general. My edition of Broom of the System was certainly no exception with a strange day-glo orange ectoplasmic smear on the cover. "Broom" is an enjoyable read. That first semi-traumatic scene in the dorm room is pretty great but the book only comes alive in that way in a couple other places for me. The scenes with the "Antichrist' brother and Lenore's sister's family's enactment of their family drama in front of...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2009
Funny and endearing. The book is divided into two parts, and, out of coincidence (being legitimately busy), I actually read it as such ... with a week or two between segments. Not sure if this helped or hurt. It is certainly the kind of reading where you need to shift your reading brain to the writer's particular groove - the next book you pick up will almost certainly feel less ... something. Less like an explosion of a brain onto the page, and more like a novel.
And that's what'...more
And that's what'...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2009
this was a fun read, appropriately taken on during a vacation punctuated by long airplane rides. It was inspired mainly by david foster wallace's recent death and the spate of articles describing him as an extraordinary treasure when it was my impression that he was largely inscrutable. I still fear I may not be smart enough to read any of his other books, but this one, apparently written right out of college, was quie approachable. I particularly liked the way the story was stitched together ou...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is the sort of book that worms its way into your mind and then changes the way you think. Even a few hours after I'd put it down, I'd suddenly realize that I was thinking run-on sentences that were a bit too absurd even for me. I don't know, I think DFW gets major props for that.
I I just recently read his commencement speech, his candid thoughts on how to think and how to live, and the fact that this brilliant man committed suicide really, really bothers me. I think it may be...more
I I just recently read his commencement speech, his candid thoughts on how to think and how to live, and the fact that this brilliant man committed suicide really, really bothers me. I think it may be...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2008
So far so amazing; it's a terrible loss to this world to lose such an amazing talent. I've read bits a pieces of DFW prior to this - Infinite Jest was an amazing ten pages but I got overwhelmed with the other 990. This is much more manageable, and probably much more enjoyable. Stay tuned for more.
I finished this novel yesterday. I was admittedly a little frustrated with the ending, as I felt it was a little odd. He literally leaves one hanging on the last word, and while it's ob...more
I finished this novel yesterday. I was admittedly a little frustrated with the ending, as I felt it was a little odd. He literally leaves one hanging on the last word, and while it's ob...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2008
I liked this book for the words. I is quite obvious that, to Wallace, the English language was a playground. Consequently, reading his creation (I hate to call it work) I felt like a kid on a swingset or jungle-gym.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comment
Read in April, 2009
It's so enjoyable to read a novel that imagines a portion of Cleveland that was laid out in the shape of Jayne Mansfield, or includes the idea of a giant man-made desert in Ohio. These are wonderfully inventive ideas and they're only two of the many in Wallace's debut.
And yet it never really adds up to much. Unlike Infinite Jest, which I found so emotionally effective, everything in The Broom of the System seems to happen at a distance: much of the plot, such as it is, takes place aw...more
And yet it never really adds up to much. Unlike Infinite Jest, which I found so emotionally effective, everything in The Broom of the System seems to happen at a distance: much of the plot, such as it is, takes place aw...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2009
If I could've given this book 3.5 stars, I would've. At it's peak, this book is vintage Wallace, giving us an inimitable mix of absurdity/sincerity/technique that makes reading a joy. However, all of Wallace's shortcomings are also on display, not the least of which, for me at least, is Wallace's inability to conjure a satiating ending. I know many, many, many will disagree with me on this, but I think stories need real endings and Wallace continually (twice) refuses to give us an ending. In Inf...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2007
Uproariously inspiring and unafraid in slant, Wallace’s first novel knocked me into writing mode for the duration of its read and the entire month thereafter. It is absurd in its invigoration and timeless in its character chew. Read it first to further enjoy everything he has done since.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in October, 2008
I really don't even know how to rate this. It took me forever to read but since the untimely passing of Wallace a few weeks ago, I thought it was time to plow through the rest. It was, um, interesting for sure. But honestly, I don't know if I liked it or not.
How's that for indecisive?
How's that for indecisive?
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comment
Owns a copy
—
Read in December, 2009
I've seen reviews of this book that say to read it before attempting Wallace's mammoth and more popular "Infinite Jest". I would have to agree, and it makes sense considering that "Broom of the System" is the author's first novel.
Broom is similar in many ways to Infinite Jest, but in a much less verbose package and doesn't have the infamous foot-notes. Like Jest, It explores themes such as Corporate America, the environment, and disconnect (both technological and ...more
Broom is similar in many ways to Infinite Jest, but in a much less verbose package and doesn't have the infamous foot-notes. Like Jest, It explores themes such as Corporate America, the environment, and disconnect (both technological and ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Sometimes the first line of a book just grabs you by the nostrils and drags your fool head into its pages, preventing escape in any way, shape or form. Which of these opening lines has its phalanges most firmly planted in your nasal cavities?
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun."
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad."
Scaramouche by Raphael Sabatini
Scaramouche by Raphael Sabatini
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
"Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Bah! Foolish poll-maker-person! The nostril seizing power of these paltry lines is minimal, at best! Look to the comments section where I shall carefully type out my choice, which you have so imprudently omitted!
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
"As Gregor Samsa awoke from a night of uneasy dreaming, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany."
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
"He— for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it— was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters."
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
“'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, 'first you have to die.'”
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person."
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
"Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women."
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were being scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
"There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim and we sat in the Korova milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening."
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
“'When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,' Papa would say, 'she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.'”
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
"Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation."
Alphabetical Africa by Walter Abish
Alphabetical Africa by Walter Abish
"Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden."
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
"The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up."
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
"When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon."
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
"When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere."
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
"Of Herbert West, who was my friend in college and in after life, I can speak only with extreme terror."
Herbert West: Reanimator and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Herbert West: Reanimator and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
"Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing."
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
"'Barabbas came to us by sea', the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy."
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
"Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature."
The Debut by Anita Brookner
The Debut by Anita Brookner
"When I was three and Bailey was four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed - 'To Whom It May Concern' - that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson."
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
"My lady and I are being shut up in a tower for seven years"
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
"What if this young woman, who writes such bad poems, in competition with her husband, whose poems are equally bad, should stretch her remarkably long and well-made legs out before you, so that her skirt slips up to the tops of her stockings?"
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things by Gilbert Sorrentino
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things by Gilbert Sorrentino
97 comments Sign in to vote!
































