Let me try the second question first. About four years ago Wallace published a vividly idiosyncratic autobiographical essay in Harper's. I was ranked seventeenth in the United States Tennis Association's Western Section. . . I could lay out a full half dozen other major plot elements and the big picture would still not begin to come clear. Wallace is scrabbling along the high-terrain paths earlier explored by Thomas Pynchon and William Gaddis.
Some features are familiar, while others have an ominous or spoofy futuristic cast.
Wallace is not afraid to commingle various tonal and thematic registers. An intriguing filtering presence, and a fine departure point for Wallace's various divagations into Incandenza family lore, Hal does not himself do much besides play tennis and, late in the book, try to stop smoking pot. Then there is the world of Don Gately. A.D.A. He performs his menial tasks, goes to meetings, interacts with the other Ennet denizens. Again, little happens in the way of conventional plot.