Condolences to the family of David Foster Wallace, after DFW hanged himself on Friday.
My brother-in-law’s sister killed herself last week, so I’ve spent a bunch of time in the last few days thinking about the frame of mind someone has to be in to commit that act and leave family/friends to pick up the pieces.
can you recommend any shorter, non-fiction pieces I can read with my students (like 5 pages or fewer)?
I liked some of his essays from his first collection, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” but
a) I read those 10 years ago, and
b) I seem to recall that they were all a bit lengthy, and fell into his maximalist/footnoting style.
His one about a qualifier for the U.S. (tennis) Open was pretty engaging, I think. Maybe there’s something good in his newer collection, “Consider the Lobster.”