Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

To classify the Franzen–Wallace relationship as “complex” would be like saying the relationship between Israel and Palestine is “contentious.” They met in the early ’90s when Wallace wrote Franzen a fan letter about his debut novel, The Twenty-Seventh City; soon after, Wallace became recognized as the next great American genius with the 1996 publication of Infinite Jest, only to have Franzen shoot past him (at least in terms of recognition and readability) with The Corrections. When Wallace killed himself, his literary reputation exploded a second time, and countless obituaries noted the Franzen–Wallace friendship. Now they are linked forever. Immediately after DFW’s death, Franzen consciously adopted Wallace’s habit of chewing tobacco, similar to how Michael Jordan started playing baseball and doing crossword puzzles following his father’s murder.