Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace

Before you ask, yes, this book does contain endnotes. :)At the time of his death, David Foster Wallace had two novels under his belt, a trio of short-story collections, and a hefty amount of essays/nonfiction. D.T. Max's biography, EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY (a reference from Wallace's posthumous novel THE PALE KING that first appeared in a letter to the University of Arizona's graduate program), is the first of the author, and I'm sure it won't be the last; Wallace's insights and personality are too big and interesting to be left to one book. With that said however, Max's treatment of Wallace's life is superb: it's clear, understated, and well-written.This isn't the first piece of writing that Max has published on Wallace. In fact, this book feels like a fleshed out version of the New Yorker article that Max published a few years back (see the comments section o this review for a link). For anyone who read and enjoyed the article, EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY feels very much like an extended take, complete with more anecdotes and more information (particularly involving his childhood). Max stores all of his sources (and there are hundreds) next to a pretty comprehensive index. There's not much speculation here -- it's a very well constructed and research account of the author's life.D.T. Max's account of Wallace's life sticks close to the facts; because the biography sticks pretty closely to notes, letters, and interviews, the narrative Max weaves often feels like a timeline. DFW's time spent in Illinois seems to rely heavily on his family's account of the events; his time in Amherst relies on dormmates; and as DFW moves into the literary world, the bulk of the narrative is constructed through letters with Mark Costello (former roommate), Michael Pietsch (editor), Bonnie Nadell (agent), Don DeLillo, and Jonathan Franzen. DFW's wife, Karen Green, seemed to cooperate a great deal in the making of EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY -- the final years of DFW's life are pretty vivid as he struggled to find inspiration to finish THE PALE KING.David Foster Wallace wrote a staggering amount of letters, both to friends, family, and fellow authors (who eventually would fall into the "friend category"). Max's use of these letters turns out to be a great way to let DFW's story unfold; it lets readers peek around in the DFW's personal thoughts without the use of speculation on behalf of D.T. Max. The friendship/rivalry of Wallace and Johnathan Franzen is documented well here, and their letters contain (what I feel to be) the most revealing information about Wallace's own insecurities and struggles with writing after THE INFINITE JEST. It appears that many of these letters of personal correspondence were borrowed, and I can't help but hope that some of these are later collected and published. Their involvement in the biography, while substantial, often don't amount to more than just slivers or short paragraphs before being slapped with a "..."What I enjoyed most about EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY is the light that it casts on Wallace's prose -- because Wallace famously pronounced that "fiction's about what it is to be a ____ing human being," the extent to which Wallace's fiction was autobiographical should be no surprise. INFINITE JEST's Hal Incandenza, for example, is a remarkably bright tennis player (with a militantly grammarian mother) who uses drugs to cope with his own anxiety. THE PALE KING's highly anxious David Cusk who has "ruminative obsession, hyperhydrosis, and parasympathetic nervous system arousal loop."Additionally, I would like to give praise to D.T. Max for the tone of the book. While there are a few jarring transitions, it's largely well-written and enjoyable to read. Max's tone towards the subject isn't overly reverent either -- Max allows the narrative to slip into some of the most unpleasant things about DFW's personality. This biography doesn't shy away from letting Wallace appear sometimes arrogant, sometimes jaded, and sometimes just plain mean.There are a few gripes that I have with the biography though: I really wish more time was spent with the Wallace family before college. Jim Wallace and Susan Foster are both really interesting characters, and traces of them show up often in DFW's work, however after the first chapter or two, father Jim and sister Amy disappear from the book almost completely. Also missing is any kind of insight from the author -- D.T. Max mostly tries to stay invisible here, so there's no real analysis of Wallace's work to be found here. The book itself is also relatively brief, just barely reaching 300 pages (not including sources/endnotes), and while a brief biography is probably appropriate (given DFW's short life), I couldn't help but want more. It's a super quick read.One of interesting choices for this biography is the fact that this is quite literally, "A LIFE OF DAVID FOSTER WALLACE:" the final sentences of the book deal with Wallace's too-soon death. The final passages of the book feel like a punch to the gut. The decision to stick so closely to the sources is primarily a fantastic move by D.T. Max -- there's no speculation about DFW's death, no conjecture about intent, and there's no overwrought purple-prose either. This style won't suit all readers -- I think many fans will have liked to see a more personal telling of DFW's story, complete with perhaps another chapter on the state of things in the wake of DFW's death. EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY does not cover what happened to the manuscript of THE PALE KING, nor does it follow the reactions of the friends, family, or the public. In previous interviews, Karen Green has stated that she did not want people to think of her departed husband as a "tormented genius" who died for his craft. This biography makes well on that wish.I would recommend EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY primarily to fans of the author's work. I do believe that other readers, unfamiliar with DFW's prose would still gain some enjoyment with the biography though: his life was so interesting and moving that parts of the narrative should be universally appealing. However, many of the autobiographical allusions that are referenced in his fiction will be lost. For those that are on the fence about buying this book, I would recommend checking out the link provided in the comments -- readers who enjoy the article will be sure to love this book. EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY won't do anything to demystify the prominent figure of modern literature that David Foster Wallace has become, but it will make you want to re-read and re-think his work.

All my adult reading life, I waited for a young contemporary writer to transport me to the prose-rich playgrounds of Nabokov and Pynchon. ADA and GRAVITY'S RAINBOW were my torches, but they were, arguably, emotionally sterile. When I read INFINITE JEST ten years ago, I knew I had finally found an author who, besides giving words an elastic, carbonated buoyancy, was a vigorously palpable storyteller, altogether tragic and heartbreaking.I remember the exact moment when I heard that Wallace took his life (as I suspect did everyone who is reading this book, who read DFW before his death). It was like a brother or best friend had died. He was my rock star--my John Lennon, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan all rolled up into literature. He wasn't yesterday's insurgent Kurt Cobain, he was today's voice--the insurrectionist of the insurrection, the anti-ironist and seeker of exigent summits.D.T. Max evinces respect, compassion, and objectivity toward this now lionized author he has never met, in his biography assembled from the contributions of friends, family, lovers, AA comrades, colleagues, fellow writers, and epistolary confidants."Fiction is what it's like to be a f*****g human being," Wallace said, and Max shows us the utter turbulence of this writer's life, a man who lived inveterately with the howling fantods (a phrase from his mother, the grammarian, used potently in INFINITE JEST).David was a depressed, addicted, chaotic genius, a man who felt that he never lived up to his lofty ambitions as a writer or a person. He was both fascinated and repulsed by the TV culture and how media hijacks and propagandizes public and private minds--his constant themes in his essays, short stories, and of course, IJ.As many know, he was hospitalized several times for breakdowns and overdoses, and struggled with pervasive suicidal ideation. Max does a virtuous job of giving the reader a candid view of the complex nature of DFW; the generously endowed writer was often a captious, violent, and tormented soul. He was also a passionate, outstanding teacher, and a patron to his companions in AA. Moreover, he was an enthusiastic dog lover, especially drawn to dogs with an abusive past.The parts of the book that describe Wallace's years writing INFINITE JEST were not just revealing, but like a fourth wall nakedly exposed. Max captures the line between author and material with authenticity and revelation. It is almost surreal, as Max brought me back to the narrative of IJ while manifesting Wallace's actual art and pain of writing it. I don't want to spoil it for readers by dropping tidbits of information--reading about it is thrilling and gripping, the most page-turning part of the book.The letters Wallace wrote to Franzen, DeLillo, Costello, and his editor, Michael Pietsch, at Little, Brown, and Company, (and many others), will prickle the skin of any DFW aficionado. He was self-conscious, and self-conscious about being self-conscious, and communicated that in his letters."I go through a loop in which I notice all the ways I am...self-centered and careerist and not true to standards and values that transcend my own petty interests...but then I countenance the fact here at least here I am worrying about it; so then I feel better about myself...but this soon becomes a vehicle for feeling superior to imagined Others...I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am--so where does that put me."This book is a valuable companion to David Lipsky's journalistic book, ALTHOUGH OF COURSE YOU END UP BECOMING YOURSELF, a biography of Lipsky's five days spent with Wallace on his IJ book tour. It is hard to compare them, as Lipsky's is an echo and interpretation of his actual time with DFW, and this book is compiled from sources outside of the biographer. Both have poignant insight into the ephemeral but perennial figure of Wallace.I award four stars, rather than five, although the quality of writing and extensive research is first-rate (despite being almost devoid of familial testimony, and despite errors that I think are typesetting errors, not copy-editing errors). It's personal. Something is missing, some essence that cannot be filled by a biographer, or hasn't yet-- the unnameable, soulful reflectiveness that I ache for. The closest way to that is through the Harry Ransom Center, which is fortunately only a few miles from my home, which houses David Foster Wallace's entire archive at hand. You can feel the pages while you read what he wrote, with just a slip of a glove separating you from his words.There is something about Wallace fans--it is as if we are all in the same karass, isn't it? But Wallace wanted to relate to us on a cosmic scale, not like an exclusive club, yet he appeals to only select (not elite, but select) readers. If you become a lover of Wallace's work, you feel almost mystically connected to all other lovers of his oeuvre, and however fantastical a presumption, we also feel connected to Wallace, the person. It is apparent that D.T. Max understands this, and that he is bonded to Wallace, also. That is why (I think) he wrote this bio, about the ghost of David, who keeps on penetrating our literary dreams.

DFW had important things to say. He went to the depths and came back to us with a new verbalization of our existential conundrums in his saddlebag: a hero of post-modern times.*1*2*1. Perhaps a hero of re-modern times or maybe the last hero of post-modern times. As he would say, "we can get very abstract in the way we talk about it".*IYI*2.1 check Joseph Campbell on modern heroes and also DFW's book on the mathematical concept of infinity.*2.1. IYI, i.e. If You Are Interested

I appreciate an honest biography like this, where the author, DT Max, has done tremendous research and filling-in-the-gaps, and then sets about describing them in a manner that is easy to read and entertaining. This clear biography fills in a lot of gaps, and sets each of DFW's incredible books within the context of his desperation that they be as good as he could possibly make them, and his horrifying battle against his personal darkness.I was fascinated to learn about how much of Infinite Jest was based closely upon the author's personal experiences - both in terms of Hal's tennis prodigy and Gateley's big-hearted rehab.Ultimately this is a wonderful and heartbreaking biography of one of the true masters of post-War English language writing, fiction and non-fiction.

Its hard to express exactly what DFW does to me as reader and my opinion veers from one extreme to the other but Infinite Jest stuck in my head for a long time.... D. T. Max does such a good job in conveying the life and soul of DFW that I just have to encourage people to take a look, even if you have read any of his work. This is a character study of what it must be like to be trapped, depressed, brilliant, blessed and cursed. It dissects the troubled mind.

Very pleased with purchase. As described. Many thanks

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