asking this question, you know, one of the great young writers certainly of this generation, david foster wallace, had committed suicide. and i became very interested. he and i went to the same college, he a decade later. but i really wanted to understand what drove david to suicide. let me read the opening paragraph of the book, really where the book starts. he left more than a dozen lamps burning in his work room. they shone upon the desk and on the unfinished manuscript neatly stacked on top of it. next to the manuscript was a two-page letter. this was the scene on the evening david foster wallace hanged himself. wallace's suicide at the age of 46 devastated the literary community. he was at the time acclaimed as the boldest, most innovative writer of his generation. his novel was widely lauded by critics and thought to have redefined postmodern american fiction. the manuscript on the desk, which he despaired of ever completing, was published posthumously. the novel contained some of his best work. despite wallace's frustration with his inability to complete the book, in some ways his life had