The Broom of the System is a novel written by David Foster Wallace. Released in 1987, it is Wallace's debut novel and tells of the life of a telephone switchboard operator in the near future.
Characters[]
- Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman - a young telephone switchboard operator
- Rick Vigorous - Lenore's boss and boyfriend
- Vlad the Impaler - Lenore's cockatiel
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Publisher's summary[]
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 s tunned 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.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Crying of Lot 49 | Thomas Pynchon | 1966 | A short postmodernist novel with similar themes and a similar main character |
| White Noise | Don DeLillo | 1985 | A postmodernist novel with similar themes |
| V. | Thomas Pynchon | 1963 | A postmodernist novel with similar themes |
| Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace | 1996 | Wallace's next novel, with similar themes |
Sources[]
- Goodreads
| Works of David Foster Wallace | ||
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Novels | ||