Stephen J. Burn

A decent book that allows us to hear the thoughts and intentions of David Foster Wallace without the spin of a third party. Although there's a good chronological spread across these interviews the bulk of the material deals with Wallace's writing circa the Girl With Curious Hair and Infinite Jest era. Not every interview is illuminating - the earliest ones are especially brief - but there's a lot of good information in here, including Wallace's famous interview with Larry McCaffery where he declared "Fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being."

A lot of the information and sentiments covered here is brought up by Wallace in Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself except there's less fluff to wade through and nothing to do with David Lipsky (thank god). If you've read that other book you might not find this one quite so illuminating but I still recommend it, and if you're deciding between the two then I'd definitely say go with Conversations. It's only for the dedicated, but Wallace aficionados will certainly enjoy it.… (meer)