Bangs, Lester, 122, 141, 142, 316n
Barker, Clive, 143
Barth, John, 47, 89–92, 94, 109, 131, 156, 174, 312n, 315n
Barthelme, Donald, 29–30, 31, 47, 60, 90
Beautiful Crap, 296, 301
Being There (movie), 6
Believer, 270, 295
Bellow, Saul, 96, 178–79
Bennington Writers Conference, 96, 104
Berkeley, Bishop, 91, 314n
Bidart, Frank, 257
Big Craig (Granada House resident), 141, 145, 150, 167, 317n, 318n, 320n
Birkerts, Sven, 76, 129, 190–91, 216, 217, 319n
Bloomington, Ill., 173–81, 185, 187–90, 203, 207, 219, 220, 227, 230–34, 245, 250, 253, 267, 268, 269, 274, 286, 319n
Wallace’s houses in, 177, 183, 187, 200–201, 232–33, 237, 249, 250, 252, 282
Blue Velvet (movie), 85, 214
Bookworm (radio show), 253–54
Boston, Mass., 37–38, 119, 123, 131, 132, 143, 153, 158, 159, 174, 190, 234, 317n, 319n
Arlington Center for the Arts in, 190–91
locksmiths in, 318n
“sober house” in, 145–46, 153
Wallace’s hatred of, 163
Boston Phoenix, 221, 320n
Boswell, Marshall, 288, 315n, 318n, 324n
Boswell, Robert, 57, 65, 72, 313n
Bradshaw, John, 170
Bradway, Becky, 324n, 325n
brat pack writers, the, 60–61, 82, 110, 313n
see also Ellis, Bret Easton; McInerney, Jay
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Wallace), 245–49, 253, 255, 264, 277, 316n, 324n
Bright Lights, Big City (McInerney), 60, 67, 96
Brighton, Mass., 136–47
Brooke, Fred, 20, 24
Brookens Junior High School, 7, 8
Broom of the System, The (Wallace), 50, 51, 61, 88, 101, 155, 203, 281, 312n, 315n, 316n, 318n–19n
editorial vision for, 315n
hint of other stories in, 63, 311n–12n
income from, 66–67, 82, 84, 315n
marriage and family therapy in, 29, 71
membrane theory in, 68–69
movie option for, 82
other Wallace works compared with, 59, 75, 86, 109, 110, 159, 183, 318n
parrot in, 46–47, 100
publication of, 65–71, 77–78, 81–82, 240, 312n, 314n
Pynchon and, 47, 48, 60, 66, 69, 70, 77, 80, 82, 312n
reviews and criticism of, 81–82, 120, 276
summary of, 44–48
title of, 47, 71
Wallace’s reading of, 83
Brothers Karamazov, The (Dostoevsky), 288
Buddhism, 181, 257, 291
bugs and insects, 6, 24
spiders, 54, 57, 165, 313n
tarantulas, 16, 116
Burgess, Anthony, 73
Burkhart, Kathe, 126, 127, 132
Bush, George W., 259, 295–96
California, 52–53, 88, 105, 266–71
Cambridge, Mass., 131, 144, 163, 229
see also Harvard University
Cantor, Georg, 260–61, 274–76
Caribbean cruise, 201–5, 245
cars, 33, 59, 103, 105, 122, 150, 157, 164, 170, 175, 177, 239, 268, 300
breakdowns of, 73–74, 119
racing of, 185
sleeping in, 24, 53
theft from, 98
Carter, Mary, 50, 55, 61, 87, 88, 266, 313n, 314n
forcing out of, 79
workshop of, 74–75, 76, 104
Carver, Raymond, 60, 68, 95–96, 166, 319n
“Catatonic Realism” (Ultraminimalism; Bad Carver), 110
Catcher in the Rye, The (Salinger), 288
Catholicism, 166, 251, 316n, 322n
Catholics (Moore), 164
Caudle, Sarah, 268, 269
Cavell, Stanley, 119, 132–33, 142
celebrity, 179, 203, 224
Champaign-Urbana, Ill., 1–14, 17, 51, 67, 73, 113, 145, 200, 286
movie theaters in, 6
Walden in, 189–90
Wallace’s returns to, 20, 22–23, 28–30, 33–34, 88, 89, 105–6, 112, 116, 154, 282–83
Chetkovich, Kathryn, 282
Chicago, Ill., 67, 73, 104, 181, 196, 252
Chicago Tribune, 216, 218, 254
children, 165, 232, 239, 248, 251, 282, 322n
“Church Not Made with Hands” (Wallace), 104
“Clang Birds, The” (Wallace), 23, 311n
Claremont, Calif., 266–71, 282–84, 297, 300, 301
Wallace’s houses in, 268, 282, 283
Clockwork Orange, A (Burgess), 73
Cobain, Kurt, 221, 322n
Cohen, Jesse, 260–61
“Compliance Branch, The” (Wallace), 292–93
computers, 146, 153, 158, 166, 167, 180, 191, 217–19, 232, 283, 287, 301, 319n
Conjunctions, 106, 117, 138, 175–76, 264, 315n
Conn, Charis, 222, 237, 242
Conroy, Frank, 83, 105–6
Coons, Chris, 21
Coover, Robert, 84, 130
Corrections, The (Franzen), 262, 264, 296
Costello, Mark, 19–28, 35, 49, 73, 78–79, 100, 103, 134, 163, 184, 201–2, 234–35, 312n, 315n, 318n, 322n
Granada House and, 139, 140