This is Water

This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Yay! I finally finished one of his works. The format is perfect--about a sentence per page. It emphasizes that this was a speech given to a wide range of people, and it leaves more time for you to think than a period. At readings, I used to love to listen to DFW read his works aloud--and this is one work that was written to be read aloud, by him. In any case, the example about being at a supermarket and thinking (or not thinking) that everyone around you is a dick is a great example. His references to days you might just want to kill yourself though, well, it's a bit creepy now...but it drives the point home. I also liked knowing that Mario Batali using crude/swear words at my graduation wasn't so unusual.


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