Broadway Books, April 2010
On March 5, 1996, David Lipsky, then a 30-year-old reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine, flew out to Bloomington, Illinois with his tape recorder in hand to accompany David Foster Wallace on the final leg of a two-week book tour. It was a seminal moment for Wallace who had just published Infinite Jest, his second novel, the one that "would shade and determine the rest of his life."
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself is a memoir of this pivotal period in the young David Foster Wallace's life. The book is a transcript of the recordings Lipsky made of conversations between the two writers during five days in cars, airplines, hotels, and diners. It is, as Lipsky hoped it would be, "a record of what David was like, when he was thirty-four and all his cards had turned over good, every one of his ships had sailed back into harbor."
On March 5, 1996, David Lipsky, then a 30-year-old reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine, flew out to Bloomington, Illinois with his tape recorder in hand to accompany David Foster Wallace on the final leg of a two-week book tour. It was a seminal moment for Wallace who had just published Infinite Jest, his second novel, the one that "would shade and determine the rest of his life."
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself is a memoir of this pivotal period in the young David Foster Wallace's life. The book is a transcript of the recordings Lipsky made of conversations between the two writers during five days in cars, airplines, hotels, and diners. It is, as Lipsky hoped it would be, "a record of what David was like, when he was thirty-four and all his cards had turned over good, every one of his ships had sailed back into harbor."
The pair cover extensive topical ground along the way. Wallace speaks about the power of experimental fiction to express how it feels to be alive and how depression landed him on suicide watch at Boston's McLean Psychiatric Hospital in the late 1980's. Wallace talks at length about more mundane topics as well - movies he likes (True Romance, Die Hard), music (Alanis Morisette), and fiction (John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse and Stephen King's The Stand, among others).
Wallace comes across as intelligent, kind and self-depracating, but perhaps the most striking quality that comes through during these interviews is his sense of humor. For instance, when a radio host informs him that they will be recording the show digitally, Wallace replies, "So only yes and no answers?"
Wallace comes across as intelligent, kind and self-depracating, but perhaps the most striking quality that comes through during these interviews is his sense of humor. For instance, when a radio host informs him that they will be recording the show digitally, Wallace replies, "So only yes and no answers?"
The best parts of the book are those in which Wallace speaks about Infinite Jest and how the years he spent writing that novel changed him as a writer: "I feel like I've built some muscles inside me that I can now use for the rest of my life. And I feel like, 'All right, like I'm a writer now.' Whether I'm a successful writer or not, I don't know. But like, like this is who I am, this is what I do. And I know now how to live in such a way that I'm doing it for the work itself."
Diamonds such as these are strewn thoughout Lipsky's transcripts, which indeed are rough. In fact, the best writing in this book are the 18 pages of Lipsky's afterward - "important stuff: what he looked like, how he died, how his friends saw him, the people we both were when we met." It's in the afterward that Lipsky, also a gifted writer, creates a stirring image of Wallace - his career, relationships, and his suicide, about which Lipsky writes, "Suicide is such a powerful end, it reaches back and scrambles the begining. It has an event gravity: Eventually, every memory and impression gets tugged in its direction."
As a Q&A transcript, Although Of Course won't be winning any literary or biography awards, but this behind the scenes glimpse into David Foster Wallace's life and thoughts will capture the fans of his writing, particularly those of Infinite Jest.
Diamonds such as these are strewn thoughout Lipsky's transcripts, which indeed are rough. In fact, the best writing in this book are the 18 pages of Lipsky's afterward - "important stuff: what he looked like, how he died, how his friends saw him, the people we both were when we met." It's in the afterward that Lipsky, also a gifted writer, creates a stirring image of Wallace - his career, relationships, and his suicide, about which Lipsky writes, "Suicide is such a powerful end, it reaches back and scrambles the begining. It has an event gravity: Eventually, every memory and impression gets tugged in its direction."
As a Q&A transcript, Although Of Course won't be winning any literary or biography awards, but this behind the scenes glimpse into David Foster Wallace's life and thoughts will capture the fans of his writing, particularly those of Infinite Jest.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
