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Writer David Foster Wallace on Pursuing "Supposedly Fun" Things

Wallace's 1,079 page novel "Infinite Jest" was critically acclaimed. His essays and stories have appeared in Harpers, The New Yorker, Playboy, The Paris Review, and others. He has a new collection of essays, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," (Little, Brown & Co.) The book's title comes from his comic account of being pampered to death on a luxury cruise, which originally appeared in Harpers.

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Other segments from the episode on March 5, 1997

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, March 5, 1997: Interview with David Foster Wallace; Interview with Amy Rigby; Review of the television show "Ira Gershwin at 100."
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19:12

Singer and Songwriter Amy Rigby on Being a "Mod Housewife"

The 37-year old musician is a former member of the New York bands Last Roundup and the Shams. Her latest album is "Amy Rigby: Diary of a Mod Housewife." Rigby says a mod housewife is "woman being dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood." She also says her favorite subjects for songwriting are: "making a living, having a family, and trying to keep a sense of humor about it all." Most of her album is produced by Elliot Easton, guitarist for the Cars.

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Foster Wallace: An Ordinary Guy Who Couldn't Be.

David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel, The Pale King, was recently published. But to truly enjoy his work, says critic John Powers, you must read his earlier pieces, which were filled with "a staggering eye for detail" from "a mind that was never predictable."

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08:29

'Infinite Jest' Author David Foster Wallace

The novelist and essayist was found dead in his home Sept. 12, reportedly a suicide. Fresh Air remembers him with an interview first aired in 1997, the year he won the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" grant.

Author David Foster Wallace smiles while speaking at a lectern wearing a white bandana

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