Consider the Lobster (A Story from Consider the Lobster)

By: David Foster Wallace

Narrated by: David Foster Wallace

Long renowned as one of the smartest writers on the loose, David Foster Wallace reveals himself in Consider the Lobster to be also one of the funniest. In this program, he ranges far and farther in his search for the original, the curious, or the merely mystifying. He discovers the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the Maine Lobster Festival and confronts the inevitable question just beyond the butter-or-cocktail-sauce quandary.

Do lobsters feel pain?

He addresses this and other important cultural questions in four brilliant esasays from his latest collection.

In what is sure to be a much-talked-about exploration of distinctly modern subjects, one of the sharpest minds of our time delves into some of life's most delicious topics.

This collection includes the following essays: "Consider the Lobster", "The View from Mrs. Thompson's", "Big Red Son", and "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart".

©2005 David Foster Wallace. All Rights Reserved. (P)2005 Time Warner AudioBooks. All Rights Reserved. A division of Time Warner Book Group.

Critic reviews

"Wallace poses an unsettling challenge to the way many of us live now....This is strong stuff....It is Wallace's nostalgia for a lost meaningfulness...that gives his essays their particular urgency, their attractive mix of mordancy and humorous ruefulness....Few of his young peers have spoken as eloquently and feelingly as he has about the moral imagination that contemporary American life imposes on them." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Novelist Wallace might just be the smartest essayist writing today." (Publishers Weekly)

Great set of mind

Tom Wolfe, Hunter S Thompson, and David F Wallace... There are just a few authors (journalist) that deserve to have their words stand long after the living have forgotten their faces and the world in which the words were penned has moved on. These guys and a handful of others deserve that right to live on into future.

There are four stories here and the Adult convention coverage story is worth the price of the book. Based on that painted horror of narrative, one needs to only halfway listen to understand that something is terribly wrong with the counterculture of the adult industry. Wallace shows us the truth of the misguided and mislead men and women that bare it all for the camera and what he reveals is not the golden rump in the haystack, but the basement rape of innocence and humanity... and I like porn (however, not nearly as much after listening to Wallace's account of the AVA in Vegas).

The Sept 11 account paints a wonderful picture of middle America on a beautiful late summer's morning and the horror that rocked the world. It captures a lot of the disbelief that such hatred and horror could find us on our own home turf and the despair of knowing that peace would now never be a possibility in this life time.

Buy the book. You will enjoy it.

David Foster Wallace...a good place to start

I had neither read nor listened to any of DFW's work, but I decided to check into it upon hearing of his recent death. Accolades called him our great lost voice and an amazing essayist. Well, he is a fantastic writer. These essays, about a lobster festival in Maine, a long essay about a porn awards ceremony, and another about his experience of 9/11 from the safe remove of Indiana are engaging and outstanding. He writes with a funny slant, great asides and observations. And he's laugh-out-loud funny. Also, check out his week-long tour with the John McCain press corps while a Rolling Stone correspondent in 2000 in another fine listen called "McCain's Promise"

Don't see the problem...

I didn't buy the audiobook of "Infinite Jest" because of all the complaints about the foot-and-endnotes being omitted. I wanted me some DFW so I bought this book, which is a very pleasant listen. AND, it includes the footnotes. Wallace simply speaks to his listeners, explains how the notes will sound a bit different so you know when you're hearing them instead of the main text, and we're off. No problem. I had at first sympathized with the producers of IJ because it seemed like, yeah, that could be complicated. But it isn't. It's a bit mystifying that they didn't use the same technique. Oh, well...

It's Great, But...

I would point anyone looking at this audiobook toward DFW: In His Own Words. The entirety of Consider the Lobster is included in it, as well as all of his voice work on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and several of his radio interviews. I bought this one before that was released, but now having both is redundant.

DFW Rocks!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Wise words from a sensitive thinker.

What other book might you compare Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (Selected Essays) to and why?

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Which character ??? as performed by David Foster Wallace ??? was your favorite?

clear how

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to finish

Any additional comments?

this review and submit it.]

Next page? Preview?

Ah, Preview finally just changed from unavailable to available. I can't figure out how that happened, but there must be a minimum comments before that icon becomes available.

Insight and Wonder

Descriptive insight becomes sweeping truth in Foster Wallace's trademark style. His narration is poetic and haunting, in light of it all.

Abridged...

While the abridgment is probably necessary given an essay like "Host," I was hoping to <i>hear</i> "Authority and American Usage." The conversational tone of that essay would fit this medium so very well--except for the nasally footnotes: but then, how <b>do</b> you handle audio footers?

A chance to hear his voice

I will admit upfront that I am an unabashed fan of DFW. That being said, I think his books are best read on paper if only to experience the non-linear footnoted style and the odd little abbreviations like "w/r/t" that he liked to sprinkle through his prose. This is one of the few abridged books I have purchased at audible.com, and it was primarily just to hear what he sounded like. His own little spoken preface on solving the footnote problem with his recording editor is worth the price all by itself. I suppose it was too much to ask that he would record the entire unabridged book, so all we get is a sampling. DFW's essays are every bit as enjoyable as his fiction. His abilites to self-reflect, to consider the subject in detail, to explore all the angles, and to record the nuances of a situation, will be sadly missed.

Awesome

One of the best audiobooks I've read all year. Love how the production team handled the footnotes.

What a Great Writer!

My only disappointment with this audiobook is the fact that several of the articles and essays that are in the actual printed book are missing. Made me mad. Otherwise, bravo!

I bought this audiobook after the deeply saddening suicide of David Foster Wallace. He's one of the greatest minds of our time, and it's such a tragedy that he wasn't able to enjoy his life more. He had a lot to give.

His vocabulary is challenging and his humor is sharp. His narration made the listening experience extra-special.