This Is Water: The Original David Foster Wallace Recording: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

by David Foster Wallace Narrated by David Foster Wallace

Overview

In this rare peak into the personal life of the author of numerous bestselling novels, gain an understanding of David Foster Wallace and how he became the man that he was.

Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in This is Water. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.

Editorial Reviews

MARCH 2011 - AudioFile

Only once,” the blurb for this production tells us, “did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life.” In fact, this commencement address, given at Kenyon College in 2005, seems more an attempt to skirt the usual platitudes and give the youthful audience something truly novel and worthwhile to take with them on their start in life. The author, already a highly esteemed writer when at the age of 46 he took his own life, was, in short, “playing to the house” rather than revealing his innermost beliefs. Using the title metaphor of a fish totally unaware that he is surrounded by water, Wallace bestows on his listeners the gift of a terse, cogent, and indeed, deep life-guiding reflection—this with humor, stylistic simplicity, and an understated yet attractive speaking style. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2011 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2011 - AudioFile

Only once,” the blurb for this production tells us, “did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life.” In fact, this commencement address, given at Kenyon College in 2005, seems more an attempt to skirt the usual platitudes and give the youthful audience something truly novel and worthwhile to take with them on their start in life. The author, already a highly esteemed writer when at the age of 46 he took his own life, was, in short, “playing to the house” rather than revealing his innermost beliefs. Using the title metaphor of a fish totally unaware that he is surrounded by water, Wallace bestows on his listeners the gift of a terse, cogent, and indeed, deep life-guiding reflection—this with humor, stylistic simplicity, and an understated yet attractive speaking style. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2011 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173498366
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	05/01/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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