To call D.T. Max's biography of David Foster Wallace "much anticipated" would be a considerable understatement; there is no book I have been looking forward to more this year. Yet now that I've finished, I'm finding myself with some mixed feelings. I'm still giving it 4 out of 5 stars in part because this book has no peer, and because it is gripping enough that I read it in a few short sittings. It was also a small thrill to see familiar names from the wallace-l email list (to which I have belonged on and off for more than a decade) mentioned in its pages. But I have to acknowledge that it was a bit less than I was hoping for.

Most of the time, D.T. Max does an admirable job of capturing "a life" of David Wallace, including significant new information from the years before DFW became mainstream famous. The treatment of his young adulthood, early signs of mental illness and involvement with recovery programs is considerably more informative than anything that has come before, and very compelling. Even Max's treatment of Wallace's childhood years is more interesting than in many other biographies. The book occasionally puts a spotlight on lesser known aspects of his subject, such as Wallace's promiscuity, tendency to exaggerate, and strained relationship with his mother. The fact that Don Gately was inspired by a real halfway house supervisor named Big Craig—whom Max interviewed, and who wasn't pleased about being fictionalized—was a revelation.

That said, as the book goes along, these revelations sometimes feel a little too occasional. The last decade of Wallace's life is covered adequately, but not with the same detail as before. I realize this is always a challenge for biographies in the "good years," although this is true as well as the last year of Wallace's life, which was anything but. Particularly in the final pages, several consecutive paragraphs from Max's New Yorker story appear nearly unchanged. I don't mean to suggest that he should have unnecessarily rewritten the same material, but I was hoping for more.

The takeaway: for those who are casually interested in DFW, I would recommend the magazine story instead. For us die-hards, Max's biography is necessary if not sufficient. Like Infinite Jest, it is no "failed entertainment." But I hope it's just the starting point, a challenge to more ambitious biographers.