The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace

Best known for his masterpiece Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace re-invented fiction and non-fiction for a generation with his groundbreaking and original work. Wallace''s desire to blend formal innovation and self-reflexivity with the communicative and restorative function of literature resulted in works that appeal as much to a reader''s intellect as they do emotion.As such few writers in recent memory have quite matched his work''s intense critical and popular impact. The essays in this Companion written by top Wallace scholars offer a historical and cultural context for grasping Wallace''s significance provide rigorous individual readings of each of his major works whether story collections non-fiction or novels and address the key themes and concerns of these works including aesthetics politics religion and spirituality race and post-humanism. This wide-ranging volume is a necessary resource for understanding an author now widely regarded as one of the most influential and important of his time.