by
D.T. Max
1
Chapter 1
"Call Me Dave"
on his childhood, and his father reading Moby Dick to the kids
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15
Chapter 2
"The Real 'Waller'"
his time at Amherst. good grades despite lots of pot. roomed with Costello sophomore year. things start to go wrong in Jan and he goes back home. starts writing fiction. at the same time, his parents' relationship starts to decay. back at Amherst in the fall: plunges into philosophy; revives the campus humor magazine Sabrina with Costello, which earns him a small circle of admirers (they'd talk about Wittgenstein, politics, mathematical logic, hot girls, etc). read a lot of books over the summer at his parents' house. writes Planet Trillaphon. starts a creative writing class. decides to outdo Costello (who had graduated double summa) and works on both Broom and his Taylor rebuttal
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1
15
Chapter 2
"The Real 'Waller'"
his time at Amherst. good grades despite lots of pot. roomed with Costello sophomore year. things start to go wrong in Jan and he goes back home. starts writing fiction. at the same time, his parents' relationship starts to decay. back at Amherst in the fall: plunges into philosophy; revives the campus humor magazine Sabrina with Costello, which earns him a small circle of admirers (they'd talk about Wittgenstein, politics, mathematical logic, hot girls, etc). read a lot of books over the summer at his parents' house. writes Planet Trillaphon. starts a creative writing class. decides to outdo Costello (who had graduated double summa) and works on both Broom and his Taylor rebuttal
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50
Chapter 3
"Westward!"
applies to MFA programs in his senior year (because he needed health insurance, and for that you need a job, and for that you probably need an MFA). hospitalized for depression and starts Nardil. starts at Arizona, and is interested in the ideas behind fiction in addition to writing itself (took a class on Derrida's Of Grammatology, for instance). seems like he was pretty arrogant and show-offy at this point (using, e.g., "How well do you know Pynchon's work?" as an icebreaker). Broom gets picked up by Viking Penguin; he writes Little Expressionless Animals and Here and There and some other short stories
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50
Chapter 3
"Westward!"
applies to MFA programs in his senior year (because he needed health insurance, and for that you need a job, and for that you probably need an MFA). hospitalized for depression and starts Nardil. starts at Arizona, and is interested in the ideas behind fiction in addition to writing itself (took a class on Derrida's Of Grammatology, for instance). seems like he was pretty arrogant and show-offy at this point (using, e.g., "How well do you know Pynchon's work?" as an icebreaker). Broom gets picked up by Viking Penguin; he writes Little Expressionless Animals and Here and There and some other short stories
3 / 0
89
Chapter 5
Into the Funhouse
on writing Westward; his time at Yaddo (where he met Jay McInerney); his first brushes with the emptiness of fame; a temp creative writing teaching job at Amherst as a 25-year-old; being unhappy and descending into TV, drinking, drugs, and loneliness; some legal issues with GCH; stops taking Nardil; encounters Franzen's The Twenty-Seventh City (for which he wrote a blurb that went unused); goes back to Tucson and teaches creative writing at U of A; GCH finally comes out; goes to Yaddo again; starts a PhD in philosophy at Harvard and tries to commit suicide
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89
Chapter 5
Into the Funhouse
on writing Westward; his time at Yaddo (where he met Jay McInerney); his first brushes with the emptiness of fame; a temp creative writing teaching job at Amherst as a 25-year-old; being unhappy and descending into TV, drinking, drugs, and loneliness; some legal issues with GCH; stops taking Nardil; encounters Franzen's The Twenty-Seventh City (for which he wrote a blurb that went unused); goes back to Tucson and teaches creative writing at U of A; GCH finally comes out; goes to Yaddo again; starts a PhD in philosophy at Harvard and tries to commit suicide
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135
Chapter 5
"Please Don't Give Up on Me"
his experiences with psychiatric wards and how it inspired IJ; starts a relationship with the (then married) Mary Karr; starts teaching at Emerson; IJ is written and starts to appear piecemeal in literary journals
6
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1
135
Chapter 5
"Please Don't Give Up on Me"
his experiences with psychiatric wards and how it inspired IJ; starts a relationship with the (then married) Mary Karr; starts teaching at Emerson; IJ is written and starts to appear piecemeal in literary journals
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177
Chapter 6
"Unalone and Unstressed"
starts teaching at ISU; writes the state fair piece; Amy gets married; buys a house in winter 1994-5; writes the cruise ship essay; IJ is finally published, to a very different literary terrain than when he started writing it (more realist than postmodern or even minimalist)
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1
177
Chapter 6
"Unalone and Unstressed"
starts teaching at ISU; writes the state fair piece; Amy gets married; buys a house in winter 1994-5; writes the cruise ship essay; IJ is finally published, to a very different literary terrain than when he started writing it (more realist than postmodern or even minimalist)
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227
Chapter 7
"Roars and Hisses"
back from the IJ tour; Supposedly is published; BI is published; starts seriously thinking about the IRS as the subject of TPK; does more journalistic stuff; leaves ISU for Pomona
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227
Chapter 7
"Roars and Hisses"
back from the IJ tour; Supposedly is published; BI is published; starts seriously thinking about the IRS as the subject of TPK; does more journalistic stuff; leaves ISU for Pomona
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268
Chapter 8
The Pale King
meets and soon marries Karen Green; writes more (non-fiction, Oblivion, Everything and More); gives Kenyon College address; continues TPK; goes off Nardil; has a terrible summer 2008. on sept 12, when Karen is out of the house, he writes her a suicide note and hangs himself on a chair in the patio, with 200 TPK pages neatly organized in the garage
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2
268
Chapter 8
The Pale King
meets and soon marries Karen Green; writes more (non-fiction, Oblivion, Everything and More); gives Kenyon College address; continues TPK; goes off Nardil; has a terrible summer 2008. on sept 12, when Karen is out of the house, he writes her a suicide note and hangs himself on a chair in the patio, with 200 TPK pages neatly organized in the garage
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