The Broom of the SystemThe Broom of the System
1987
The mysterious disappearance of her great-grandmother and twenty-five other elderly inmates from a Shaker Heights nursing home has left Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman emotionally stranded on the edge of the Great Ohio Desert. But that is simply one problem of many for the hapless switchboard operator-seriously compounded by her ongoing affair with boss Rick Vigorous; the impending TV stardom of her talking cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler; and similar small catastrophes that threaten to elavate Lenore's search for love and self-determination to new heights of spasmodic weirdness. Fiercely original, bracingly funny, and deeply mysterious, THE BROOM OF THE SYSTEM is the brilliant precursor to David Foster Wallace's celebrated second novel, INFINITE JEST.
1993 Avon Paperback
Resources:
- Steve Russillo's index and chapter summaries. A great resource! Added 16/9/07
- Michiko Kakutani's review of "The Broom of the System" (12.27.86) from The New York Times
- Caryn James's review of "The Broom of the System" (3.1.87) from The New York Times Book Review
- Review by Orson Scott Card August 1987
- The Washington Post - Rudy Rucker's From the Mixed-Up Future of Lenore Beadsman (11.1.87) Preview only
- Avant! blog review (23.7.2009).
- The Pursuit of Life blog review (18.8.2010)
- Richard Rayner's review of for the L.A. Times, Paperback Writers: Brush up on your Wallace (26.6.2010)
- Biblioklept review (3.8.2010)
Essays:
- The Last Book I Loved - The Broom of the Sytem by Tori Schact
- Clare Hayes-Brady, The Book, the Broom and the Ladder: Philiosophical Groundings in the Work of David Foster Wallace in Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays.
- Graham Foster, A Blasted Region: David Foster Wallace's Man-made Landscpares in Consider David Foster Wallace: Critical Essays.
