Girl With Curious HairStories

Lean, mean chunks of satire by the author of Infinite Jest
If all you know of the late David Foster Wallace is that bulletproof buffet of otherworldly dystopian post-modern ultra-brilliance Infinite Jest, you might be shocked (and relieved) to come across this collection of stories set here in our reality and served in sensible portions. Well, compose yourself. Girl with Curious Hair is DFW for the rest of us: a bit less complicated, a smidge less verbose, as inventive as ever and paved with pop culture touchstones. We start with “Little Expressionless Animals,” wherein a self-taught savant starts a years-long winning streak on Jeopardy while producers plot her downfall and Alex Trebek plays pranks on Pat Sajak. Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, pretentious punk sadists, veterans of McDonald’s commercials and David Letterman make appearances elsewhere in this collection, too — all pawns on the checker board of DFW’s elaborate games of Risk and Operation. Sorry. Point is: This is your access point, your window into an author whose daunting reputation may have led you to believe you were not up to the challenge. You are. Point really is: This is fun. It’s witty, sharp, satirical and totally worth your time. Only the book’s grand finale — a tangent-laden novella called, forbiddingly, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way” — threatens to steamroll the reader (or listener), but by then you’ll have the faith and the curiosity to stick with it.