[philwebster]

I'm excited to be the first comment to recommend The Broom of the System. I picked it off the library shelf because I knew of David Foster Wallace, but didn't think I had the stamina to go for Infinite Jest at the time. It's much, much shorter than Infinite Jest, and is a single story rather than a collection of essays (don't get me wrong, Consider the Lobster is also great). The humor is absurd, different than anything I'd read before, and it completely clicked with me, paving the way to the rest of his work. You should start here.

[minkzilla]

The Broom of the System was the first DFW I read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ending was a little lackluster, actually the overall story was a little lackluster; But the humor and characters make up for that. I smile every time I think about The Great Ohio Desert.