The Broom of the System

A Novel

By: David Foster Wallace

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

The "dazzling, exhilarating" (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest, available for the first time as an audiobook.

At the center of The Broom of the System is the betwitching (and also bewildered) heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland-the Great Ohio Desert. Lenore works as a switchboard attendant at a publishing firm, and in addition to her mind-numbing job, she has a few other problems. Her great-grandmother, a one-time student of Wittgenstein, has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau (and boss), editor-in-chief Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous. And her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psychobabble, Auden, and the King James Bible, which may propel him to stardom on a Christian fundamentalist television program.

Fiercely intelligent and entertaining, this debut novel from one of the most innovative writers of our generation explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

GET RID OF THE MUSIC

Love the book, love the narration. DETEST the random obnoxious music cut ins—often in the middle of chapters???? Horrible decision

Too fast

It would be nice if the narrator would take a breath now and then to give the listener a moment to absorb what they are hearing. It is manic and not enjoyable at regular speed. Slowing it down to .75 makes him sound drunk. Amazon could fix the problem by giving their customers the ability to make finer adjustments to the speed, but I guess that is too much to ask for.

DFW Not To Be Missed!

A classic DFW story line with some of the BEST narration I've heard yet. It's not "DFW Lite", it's "not to be missed"!

the music break throughs are awful!

pretty good book by David author Wallace but the story is interupted hourly with loud whimsical music.

Partners with God (Club)

While enjoyable, you can tell this is his early work. The performance of the narrator was very good, especially the final segment with the Partnership Singers, but I did not like the interludes of music that came up periodically between scenes. It seemed out of place and detracted from the listening experience for me. I would recommend this to anyone seeking to round out there repertoire of David's work.