Erica K. (pinkshoes) reviewed on 5/27/2008 + 2 more book reviews

While some will say Wallace is an excellent writer, I was unimpressed with his need for so many footnotes and insertions. Some of this footnotes seemed like they should have been their own essays being as long as they were. Why can't he use a pronoun every once in a while instead of "Your Correspondence" which is quickly abbreviated as "yr crr". That is not the only abbreviation he makes up. I felt like I should have been taking notes to keep track of what I was reading before the page long footnote and what all those abbreviations mean. Many of his essays are filled with facts, reading almost as though the flash cards he wrote them down on were just thrown into the piece.

The last part that really bothers me is how pretentious he sounds. He even does it when he is writing about the Annual Adult Video News Awards, never mind how bad it gets when he is writing about how he helped edit an English usage dictionary. It's almost like he wants you to feel stupid.

I'm sorry for really getting on his case and maybe I should give him another try, but for now, I'm all set.

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