This book consists almost entirely of transcribed (but unedited) tapes made by Lipsky, a Rolling Stone reporter, on a road trip with David Foster Wallace during the Infinite Jest reading tour. On the plus side, DFW is amazingly articulate, and his transcribed speech makes for better reading than many authors' written output. However, on the downside, there is no structure to the narrative. The result is a meandering mess and is probably of interest only to diehard DFW fans or readers curious about obscure literary authors dealing with sudden fame.

There are small pieces scattered throughout that are worthwhile. For example, in a rare bit of authorial contribution, Lipsky's explanation of DFW's suicide in the introduction makes sense to me, and it makes me very sad. Having read this, I'm rather interested to see if, 15 years after first reading it, Infinite Jest holds up for me on a reread, especially now that I know more about DFW himself.