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Quack This Way (2013)

by David Foster Wallace(Favorite Author)

4.27 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0979606039 (ISBN13: 9780979606038)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penrose Pub

review 1: This was another interesting - if brief (I finished this in a few hours at work, and I'm a slow reader) - interview with DFW. Bryan Garner, you'll remember from Wallace's essay in Consider the Lobster, is the author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and Quack this Way is the transcript of an hour-long filmed interview Garner conducted with Wallace in 2006. So what's great about this is that these two brilliant word savants geek-out with each other about words and language and dialects and usage and writing and teaching, and it's wonderful because this kind of conversation gives you a behind-the-scenes type of look into what a guy like DFW or BAG thinks about buried verbs or gerundives or whatever, but it leaves you wanting more. Like, a lot more. I wanted this to b... moree about 300 pages longer, but alas, it is what it is and only gets four stars.
review 2: Those who have read Wallace's essay on American grammar and usage in Consider the Lobster won't be at all surprised by anything in the content of this transcribed interview. But, Wallace fans will smile at being able to picture him in all of his awkward brilliance, engaging with and stealing the show from his interlocutor (Garner) all the while. Moreover, though this book is pricey for its slim length, all of its proceeds are donated to upkeep of Wallace's archives at the Ransom Center. In short, I begrudge it neither my time nor my money (though I'd tell anyone to start with Wallace's essay, which is BRILLIANT!). less

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