LitMinds Book Club

The “dazzling, exhilarating” (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from one of this century’s most groundbreaking writers

Published when David Foster Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990, and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho-babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

About the Author

David Foster Wallace was an American author and professor who wrote novels, essays, and short stories. His work is known for its linguistic skill, inventive structure, and exploration of moral and existential questions. His 1996 novel Infinite Jest, a complex, sprawling dystopian tale, is his best-known work. Wallace’s essays, published in magazines like The Atlantic and Harper’s, are also celebrated.