Just finished David Foster Wallace’s first novel, The Broom of the System.  This read followed hard on the heels of Wallace’s magnificent Infinite Jest, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Broom suffered in comparison; it’s also true, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed Broom.  It was an entirely different type of work.  Lots of talking; a good chunk of the book’s exposition is given in dialogue form.  Lots of focus on male-female relationships, ambiguously defined and maintained.  A similar investigation of family dynamics that one saw in Infinite Jest. The plot, or pseudo-plot, revolves around a missing great-grandmother and a cohort of her nursing-home acquaintances, but then everything kind of goes off from there in several different directions, and nothing really gets resolved.  In fact, and the book is famous for this, the narration ends in mid-sentence, unfinished.

What was memorable?  The contrast between the nervous, desexualized Rick Vigorous, and his newly met Amherst pal Wang-Dang Lang was priceless.  You can imagine from his nickname on what Andrew Lang’s reputation hangs.  Or is hung. (ba da boom!).  The sex-talking parrot, the industrialist who wants to eat the world, the drug-addict college kid who talks philosophy to his prosthetic leg – all are very well done sketches.  Wallace’s description of the office scenes at Frequent and Vigorous publishing are subtle, coy, and funny.  As a cohesive work, it can be faulted, for sure, but I really enjoyed the sensibility, the language, the imagery, even the imagination behind conceits like the Great Ohio Desert (aka GOD).

What would I have liked more of?  More Wittgenstein – Lenore’s great-grandmother (also named Lenore) was a student, and her philosophy as such got very little airing.

Overall: Excellent work.  If you liked (a) Infinite Jest, (b) Pynchon’s V, or (c) DeLillo’s Americana (which I’m reading now, and from which Broom quite obviously borrows), you’ll enjoy The Broom of the System.

Have you read it?  What did you think?  Leave a comment!