This essay, especially the part detailing the I.-C.-F.E.T. retreat, reminds me of his brilliant description of AA meetings in Infinite Jest and the bizarre ritu

This essay, especially the part detailing the I.-C.-F.E.T. retreat, reminds me of his brilliant description of AA meetings in Infinite Jest and the bizarre rituals that people undergo to help one another behind closed doors. Reading thru this essay, you definitely get a sense of how tight his prose is - what would be egregiously long and cumbersome run-on sentences for any other writer are fluid and make perfect sense as spiraling thoughts. I'd recommend "Every Love Story is a Ghost Story," D.T. Max's biography of DFW. It gives a good outline of his life without straying too far into speculation/psychoanalysis. I usually try to approach books without any knowledge of the author but I feel like knowing DFW's history enhanced my enjoyment of his writing (especially non-fiction).