Good Old DFW
4 stars
Well, I liked it said Florence.
I thought the title story was hilarious actually and set the tone for the entire volume - from what I'd understood about DFWallace I'd expected someone a lot more serious rather than the Burroughsian dislocations to be found in this volume. 'Lyndon' I thought was not all that but did give me dreams about working for the Head of the Civil Service (my last months in the CS were spent working for the man who engineered my redundancy; on a more positive note I would occasionally encounter Michael Heseltine during my working day. A Tory, but a gentleman, unlike some). The final story is obviously in dialogue (but that's what you're supposed to say!) with John Barth's 'Lost in the Funhouse'.
'John Billy' seems to be an exercise in narrative form and he also has a thing about television shows, but after all we …
Well, I liked it said Florence.
I thought the title story was hilarious actually and set the tone for the entire volume - from what I'd understood about DFWallace I'd expected someone a lot more serious rather than the Burroughsian dislocations to be found in this volume. 'Lyndon' I thought was not all that but did give me dreams about working for the Head of the Civil Service (my last months in the CS were spent working for the man who engineered my redundancy; on a more positive note I would occasionally encounter Michael Heseltine during my working day. A Tory, but a gentleman, unlike some). The final story is obviously in dialogue (but that's what you're supposed to say!) with John Barth's 'Lost in the Funhouse'.
'John Billy' seems to be an exercise in narrative form and he also has a thing about television shows, but after all we are amusing ourselves to death.
I read this while sharing a room with a fella who asked me if it was any relation to 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. I wonder if it would be possible to relate them, or rewrite the Millennium Trilogy (in c. 1000 words) as by DFW. It is the sort of project that he himself would have liked to take on.
