Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays

A collection of David Foster Wallace’s witty and deeply observant essays exploring everything from lobster festivals and politics to the nature of human suffering, from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest. "brilliantly entertaining...Consider the Lobster proves once more why Wallace should be regarded as this generation's best comic writer" —Cleveland Plain Dealer

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person?

David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of John McCain's 2000 presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

"Wallace can do sad, funny, silly, heartbreaking, and absurd with equal ease; he can even do them all at once." —New York Times