I think I've officially lost interest in David Foster Wallace's short fiction. This is probably a better collection than Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but my overall reaction is more negative, perhaps because I no longer have the mental energy to suss out whatever message Wallace is trying so hard to obfuscate. Granted: there is a sentence to die for on nearly every page, and there are interesting and unique elements in every story. However, it doesn't add up to an enjoyable experience for anybody but the most devoted pomo wonk.

There are eight stories in this collection, ranging from the devastatingly pithy three-page "Incarnations of Burned Children" (which, after reading, I put down the book and retreated into myself for an hour) to "Another Pioneer" consisting of a single, 20+ page paragraph. I enjoyed "Good Old Neon", but in the other stories, either the style got in the way of the substance, or the subject matter just didn't connect with me.

I'm still holding out hope that Infinite Jest wasn't a fluke. I read that first, and I've liked subsequent books less and less. Time for another novel, DFW!