Reviews

Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky

xanderman001's review against another edition

2.0

There are some things in this book that I'll probably be quoting to people whenever I share my love of literary and experimental fiction but except for those small bites of quotable samples, this book sort of feels like a Mcdonalds-Esque substitute for the real meat and potatoes of DFW's mind a.k.a his bibliography. The movie that came out of this 'The End of The Tour' is honestly much more rewarding than this book. So I would like to spare anyone the disappointment of this read and just encourage everyone to watch that movie as a sort of preface to DFW and Infinite Jest.

subvino's review against another edition

4.0

Once again confirmed that I LOVE DFW and that he seemed like a hell of a guy. David Lipsky, on the other hand... Not so much. I won't even go there.

ac4808's review against another edition

5.0

This was nothing short of lovely, precisely what I had hoped it would be: an intimate series of conversations with the one and only.

I wish I could have given myself this book, say, 5 or 6 years ago when I was feeling lonely and unhappy. This felt like a salve for the soul. One of very few books I could see myself rereading in the future. 

johnbradley2's review against another edition

5.0

A really excellent novel for DFW fans. Might even be a good intro for folks new to his work. Highly recommended.

erincataldi's review against another edition

4.0

I was surprised at how quickly I flew through this book. I think I was expecting it to be as heavy as Infinite Jest, but at a slim 300 pages this book a nice fast read. I had seen the movie, The End of The Tour, last year and loved it. Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself is the transcript turned book that the movie is based off of. Former Rolling Stones journalist, David Lipsky, got to spend five days with author, David Foster Wallace at the end of his Infinite Jest book tour and he recorded hours of conversation and comments. This book is a transcript of all their various musings. Anything from dogs, to Last of the Mohicans, to the writing process, and suicide was covered and it touches on a little bit of everything and is fascinating to read. Wallace speaks as eloquently as he writes and was clearly a literary genius. This book just makes his loss even more profound. An interesting peak into the mind of a literary genius. A must read for fans of David Foster Wallace.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in return for my honest, unbiased review.

hoboken's review against another edition

2.0

Wanted to hear what DFW had to say about Infinite Jest--almost nothing in here. Too sloppy, too disjointed, too undisciplined--due more to the reporter-author than DFW I think. He was supposed to be doing a profile for Rolling Stone, but in the end they didn't want it. And we see why. The author should have been giving us something we didn't know about DFW and his work--that is, getting DFW to give it to us. Instead we sit in on a lot of inconsequential late-night, roadtrip chat. DFW had a lot more to say--too bad this author didn't get him to say it.

stevenyenzer's review against another edition

3.0

This started off great, got pretty boring, and then became somewhat interesting again. Unfortunately a large part of the book is taken up with discussions between Lipsky and Wallace about movies and TV shows, which I did not find particularly interesting. Also, Lipsky's worshipful attitude toward Wallace veered at times into absurdity -- he truly seems to be in love with him and his fawning asides were distracting.

irismitchell's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

jeremygoodjob's review against another edition

3.0

This book is pretty great if it's exactly what you think it is.

pamjsa's review against another edition

4.0

The format makes this book difficult reading, but I loved hearing DFW in his own words.