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geoffdgeorge's review against another edition
I'd read most of the stories in this collection years ago, but I finally got around to slogging my way through the novella-length "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" over the past few months, and I'm mostly just glad to be done with it. I understand now why Wallace had this to say about it:
"My idea in 'Westward' was to do with metafiction what Moore’s poetry or like DeLillo’s 'Libra' had done with other mediated myths. I wanted to get the Armageddon-explosion, the goal metafiction’s always been about, I wanted to get it over with, and then out of the rubble reaffirm the idea of art being a living transaction between humans, whether the transaction was erotic or altruistic or sadistic. God, even talking about it makes me want to puke. The 'pretension.' Twenty-five year-olds should be locked away and denied ink and paper. Everything I wanted to do came out in the story, but it came out just as what it was: crude and naive and pretentious."
balbert1525's review
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I love the story here and there. All of the other stories were good but I was not a fan of Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.
bunburyist's review against another edition
4.0
I love the depth of his writing. This collection was a really slow read for me. I can be a slow reader when I'm completely engrossed in a story. I kid you not - the 140 pages of Westward took me 8-10 hours to read. Now I need to pick up a copy of Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse."
erincampbell87's review against another edition
4.0
Whew. There were stories I loved and stories I hated. I don't feel like a DFW reviewer, but I'm glad I read this and I definitely feel smarter for it, which, for me, has always been the joy of DFW. you can definitely feel the wheels come off the last story as it tumbles into early Infinite Jest exercises, and I guess that probably is enough for it to stand on its own.
caitpoytress's review against another edition
2.0
I'm a little bit sad that I didn't like this more. I did really enjoy the first story, 'Little Expressionless Animals', but the rest were just ok. I should note that I did not read the last (and largest) story, 'Westward the Course of the Empire Takes Its Way', because I've read that I need to read John Barth's 'Lost in the Funhouse' first in order to fully get/appreciate it. I'll come back and finish this book after I've done so.
rbreade's review against another edition
Wallace's strange, sad, weird, lonely characters try in these stories to understand themselves and their place in the world, not to mention what, exactly, it means to live in the world. Also, what is the world, the universe, and existence.
Along the way, brilliant writing occurs. Such as, "We flew away over the flat summer board games of Indiana and Ohio."
And, "My husband's brand of cigarette is a foreign sort that lets everyone know that something is on fire."
There's the creepiness of the title story--a distortion of time and morality via the sociopathic narrator--the beauty of the flash-length story, "Everything is Green," and the metafictional novella, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way," in which a long car ride through Illinois corn country is braided with plot threads of Jack Lord, of Hawaii Five-O fame, and Ray Croc, the hamburger magnate, to mention just two of the stranger elements.
DFW's wit and humor begin on the copyright page with this disclaimer:
"These stories are 100 percent fiction. Some of them project the names of 'real' public figures onto made-up characters in made-up circumstance."
Note the quotation marks around "real." You can deduce a great deal about Wallace's fictional concerns and approach from those marks.
Last, in among the acknowledgments of the help received from Yaddo and others, he also mentions "The Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Fund for Aimless Children."
Too bad he's gone. I love both his fiction and his essays.
Along the way, brilliant writing occurs. Such as, "We flew away over the flat summer board games of Indiana and Ohio."
And, "My husband's brand of cigarette is a foreign sort that lets everyone know that something is on fire."
There's the creepiness of the title story--a distortion of time and morality via the sociopathic narrator--the beauty of the flash-length story, "Everything is Green," and the metafictional novella, "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way," in which a long car ride through Illinois corn country is braided with plot threads of Jack Lord, of Hawaii Five-O fame, and Ray Croc, the hamburger magnate, to mention just two of the stranger elements.
DFW's wit and humor begin on the copyright page with this disclaimer:
"These stories are 100 percent fiction. Some of them project the names of 'real' public figures onto made-up characters in made-up circumstance."
Note the quotation marks around "real." You can deduce a great deal about Wallace's fictional concerns and approach from those marks.
Last, in among the acknowledgments of the help received from Yaddo and others, he also mentions "The Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Fund for Aimless Children."
Too bad he's gone. I love both his fiction and his essays.