DFW and the Unfinished

The March 9th issue of The New Yorker includes an essay about David Foster Wallace and his unfinished novel.  Again, as always, I find it all very sad.  He would have turned 47 last month.  The essay includes some correspondence between him and Don DeLillo.  There are also some quotes from Mary Karr.  I knew they had dated, but had always wondered when and how, and the essay touches on some of that.  If you’re so inclined, you can read some of Wallace’s unfinished novel here.  I haven’t read it yet, but am tempted.  Reading a piece that hasn’t hit completion seems unfair and misleading.  With all the revision involved with writing, it’d be hard to read the piece and come to any sort of conclusion about what it means or what he meant by it or what the experience of reading it should be.  But it’s there.