String Theory

 String Theory 

By David Foster Wallace

I've been meaning to read this book since I discovered its existence several years ago, and, inspired by this year's Australian Open (now several months in the past) I finally requested it via interlibrary loan. The book contains a series of essays on tennis, including a reflection on Wallace's own time as a nearly-high-level junior tennis player and on Roger Federer's greatness.

The essays are without exception fun to read. I love Wallace's voice; his is an equal mix of cynicism, awe, and wit. And the vocabulary! The man loves words. Example: "Goran Ivanisevic is large and tan and surprisingly good-looking -- at least for a Croat; I always imagine Croats looking ravaged and katexic and like somebody out of a Munch lithograph -- except for an incongruous and wholly absurd bowl haircut that makes him look like somebody i a Beatles tribute band." He does this for pages and pages and pages. Katexic! And then there are the footnotes, with which Wallace famously experimented in his novels. He does here, too, and they often take up more of a page than the regular text.

I will say that the essays definitely repeat some of the same themes. One of which is that we mere mortal tennis players have no idea how good pros are until we see it in person. It would therefore be best to mete these out throughout the year. Perhaps one essay per major? This will be a good gift for Dad.