Saturday, Mar 14, 2009

Book Review: This is Water

Author:       David Foster Wallace

Publisher:    Little Brown/Hachette

Website:     www.hachettebookgroup.com

ISBN #:      978-0-316-06822-2

Type:         Philosophy

Pages:       144 (Hardback)

Purchase:   $10.19 Amazon.Com (HERE)

The History

This is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life.

From Hachette’s Website:  “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.”

The Review

I must be completely honest, I am not familiar with David Foster Wallace’s works.  I am interested in reading Infinite Jest and Consider the Lobster.  I would be thrilled to hear from you if you’ve read his works and what your thoughts are on them.  I have been reading some blogs about Wallace and this one is a particularly enlightening post.  A detailed article about his life and death can be accessed HERE.  After reading about his genius mind and his tormented life, I feel sad that I hadn’t read his works before his passing.  He was a local teacher here in Southern California. 

This little book is very powerful and is one that I intend to read and discuss with my girls when they are older.  He starts his speech with such brilliance:

“… The immediate point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.”

The short, yet powerful, book goes on to share that it is how you choose to view life and understand the world around you that makes a difference in your existence.  The words contained within this book are beautifully, brutally honest and I could relate to what he was saying. 

Understanding that Wallce was suffering from depression and under medications for 20 years makes my heart go out to him for all that he endured in his short life.  Additionally, my prayers will be with his family tonight as I am sure that the mark that he made on their world was as indelible as it was remarkable. 

A special thanks to Miriam at Hachette for sharing this powerful book of words with me. 

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”

This book is perfectly timed with upcoming graduations from colleges and universities around our country.  I believe that this would make the PERFECT gift for that college graduate in your life.  This is also the kind of book that you can find inspiration in.  Therefore, it would be a great gift to give to somebody who is experiencing great change in their life.  For the genre Philosophy (really, modern philosophy), I give this read a 10 out of 10! 

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