ON DFW AND TOTAL NOISE:
"...a triage of what he calls the Total Noise of American culture is exactly what Wallace has achieved in the 2007 anthology, where along with revelations of the now infamous doings at Abu Ghraib prison we hear about the sexualization of children, the abuse of nonhuman animals, the historical horrors of warfare, the widening gap between the very wealthy and the very needy, and the destruction of the planet to the point where the final essay in the volume, Edward O. Wilson’s beautiful 'Apocalypse Now,' sounds like a prayer: God help us."
This one definitely rankled me a bit, as it's a generally positive review of one of my least favorite BAE volumes and a gentle argument in favor of two pieces included in the anthology that I think are just not that good as nonfiction. But, in Blew's own words, "Oh, I won’t give it away! Read it yourself!"