7.8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print ISBN 0-307-59243-X Publisher Broadway Books | 3.9/5 Goodreads Publication date April 13, 2010 Pages 352 Originally published 13 April 2010 Page count 352 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Adaptations The End of the Tour (2015) Similar David Lipsky books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace is a 2010 book by David Lipsky, about a five-day road trip with the author David Foster Wallace.
Contents
Lipsky, a novelist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, recounts his time spent with the author of Infinite Jest at the moment when Wallace realized his work would bring him fame, and that this would change his life. The book was a New York Times bestseller. In 2014, a film adaptation entitled The End of the Tour was filmed; it was released in July 2015.
Story
Lipsky, who received a National Magazine Award for writing about Wallace in 2009, here provides the transcript of, and commentary about, his time accompanying Wallace across the country just as Wallace was completing an extensive "book tour" promoting his novel Infinite Jest. The format captures almost every moment the two spent together – on planes and cars, across the country — during the specific time period when Wallace was becoming famous; the writers discuss literature, popular music and film, depression, the appeals and pitfalls of fame, dog ownership, and many other topics.
Reception
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself—which sprung from a National Magazine Award–winning story—was positively reviewed by critics. In TIME magazine, Lev Grossman wrote, "The transcript of their brilliant conversations reads like a two-man Tom Stoppard play or a four-handed duet scored for typewriter." The Atlantic Monthly called the work, "far-reaching, insightful, very funny, profound, surprising, and awfully human"; at National Public Radio, Michael Schaub described the book as "a startlingly sad yet deeply funny postscript to the career of one of the most interesting American writers of all time", calling it "crushingly poignant". Newsweek noted, "For readers unfamiliar with the sometimes intimidating Wallace oeuvre, Lipsky has provided a conversational entry point into the writer's thought process. It's odd to think that a book about Wallace could serve both the newbies and the hard-cores, but here it is." Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, described the book as "a candid and fascinating glimpse into a uniquely brilliant and very troubled writer." The Wall Street Journal as "lovely", and Laura Miller in Salon called it "exhilarating". The reviewer for The Awl wrote, “I can't tell you how much fun this book is… It's a road picture, a love story, a contest: two talented, brilliant young men with literary ambitions, and their struggle to understand one another." The book was a New York Times best-seller and an NPR Best Book of the Year.