A review by mattleesharp
Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace by D.T. Max

3.0

This is definitely not going to be the definitive David Foster Wallace biography. Among many other things, it first needs another round of editing. It also felt like D. T. Max just didn't have enough source material. He leans too heavily on quotes from DFW's fiction to flesh out the relationships with people in his life (particularly his mother). Toward the end it even feels like chapters were just sort of organized by publication. If there is a gap of a couple years in publication (97-00, 05-07) you just kind of have to accept that you're not going to know that much about what DFW was feeling at the time. It's still pretty engaging writing and fills in a lot of detail. If you're interested in Wallace, it's worth reading, but you probably want to keep your eyes open for a better bio a few years down the road.