Book review: Both Flesh and Not, By David Foster Wallace

Readers intrigued by the late author but deterred by the sheer bulk of Infinite Jest or The Pale King should enjoy this nursery-slope of his selected essays. Not that DFW ever lets himself off the hook.

Pieces on Roger Federer or the US Open will bristle with as many cliché-busting ideas as discourses on storytelling in maths, or the slide from "fun" to "vanity and fear" in literary careers.

Slangy, intimate, profound, DFW cared deeply about the integrity of his life and thought. In 1988, he hoped that "the good stuff can't help but rise". His did, at least.