Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, David Lipsky

It’s an intimate transcript that captures David Foster Wallace at the precise moment he transformed from a cult writer into an author icon. Based on a five-day road trip during the 1996 Infinite Jest book tour, we follow Lipsky and Wallace through the mundane: diner meals, airport lounges, and long drives through the Midwest…while they engage in conversation. The book functions less like a traditional biography and more like a time capsule; it preserves Wallace’s distinctive voice, distinguished by an articulate blend of academic exactness and ‘normal’ slang.  It’s a raw look at his profound anxieties regarding fame, which he viewed as toxic to the soul and a threat to the integrity of his work.

There’s also Wallace’s meditations on loneliness and the addictive nature of American entertainment. I thought the book provided an invaluable service by humanizing a man often mythologized as a tortured genius. It lays bare Wallace’s mind; his ability to spin philosophy out of a trip to the mall or a discussion about Alanis Morissette; revealing the internal doubt spiral he constantly fought to silence. The book is a humanizing portrait that allows the reader to feel like they are riding in the passenger seat next to one of the most significant authors of the late 20th century.