MixedThe San Francisco Chronicle‘How clever!’ one can't help but exclaim, impressed by all the postmodern acrobatics. But then the disappointment sets in. After all, it's not enough just to be clever when the seriousness of Serious Literature is at stake. Don't you also have to hold yourself accountable to your own observations? Apparently not, unless Wallace really thinks the urgently important question is not one of the Important Questions but, in fact, why we're not asking the Important Questions. Which, let's face it, sounds like a secondary question at best … So the essays in Consider the Lobster ultimately ring hollow; that doesn't mean they aren't loads of fun … Wallace doesn't demand we put faith in his facts; he doesn't even demand we stop eating lobster. He asks of us something more difficult -– that we think about our actions. And like the best of his essays, Consider the Lobster invites us to participate in a new and fascinating conversation.
