Play Audiobook Sample
The Broom of the System: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.00) - 7,198 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
The "dazzling, exhilarating" (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest, available for the first time as an audiobook.
At the center of The Broom of the System is the betwitching (and also bewildered) heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on the edge of a suburban wasteland-the Great Ohio Desert. Lenore works as a switchboard attendant at a publishing firm, and in addition to her mind-numbing job, she has a few other problems. Her great-grandmother, a one-time student of Wittgenstein, has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau (and boss), editor-in-chief Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous. And her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psychobabble, Auden, and the King James Bible, which may propel him to stardom on a Christian fundamentalist television program.
Fiercely intelligent and entertaining, this debut novel from one of the most innovative writers of our generation explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.
Download and start listening now!
"Who's. Great book. Genius really. Confusing at times as all DFW is, raucously funny in others, and awe-inspiring in its use of language. It's not the best of his works, but a great read and on I'd recommend."
— Matt (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“Wonderfully odd…Mr. Wallace possesses a wealth of talents—a finely tuned ear for contemporary idioms; an old-fashioned storytelling gift; a seemingly endless capacity for invention and an energetic refusal to compromise.”
— New York Times -
“Remarkable…hip but true…emerging from the tradition of Thomas Pynchon’s V and John Irving’s The World According to Garp.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Wonderful…a cathartic experience with lots of laughs and lots of deeper meanings.”
— Washington Post Book World -
“Gut splitting laughs…runs the gamut from sex to TV preachers, from Gilligan’s Island to Wittgensteinian philosophy…Beneath poetry, beneath the bubbling humor, something sinister is cooking. Wallace has something to say about society, something heedful.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer -
“Wonderful…outlandish…The Broom of the System stands apart from the. Offbeat and inventive, it’s filled with some of the most deadly accurate contemporary dialogue ever captured in print…You’re in for a good time.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer -
“A prodigiously inventive, hugely funny writer whose best work challenges and reinvents the art of fiction.”
— Atlanta Journal Constitution
The Broom of the System Listener Reviews
-
" Tough read. Strange and hilarious though. "
— Jason, 2/6/2014 -
" i found this book funny. i haven't read anything else by Wallace, there is something about him that is annoying, a little bit. "
— Lucas, 2/6/2014 -
" like a first draft of inifinte jest. Immature but entertaining "
— Fs, 1/31/2014 -
" Never found any redeeming value to this convoluted piece of nothing. This is NOT literature. "
— Rena, 1/25/2014 -
" About halfway through after starting this on the plane. I'd heard mixed reviews but I'm really liking this one -- it has the playfulness and lucidity of Infinite Jest without being as convoluted. It's also partly set at Amherst and is giving me flashback dreams of when I lived in Amherst, which is not unpleasant. "
— Laurel, 1/24/2014 -
" This is a case of library recall. We're talking page 300 and this thing is finally going somewhere. Some clown's got it on Hold though, so away it goes. Ana, you'll have to tell me how it ends. Where's Gramma? "
— Christine, 1/21/2014 -
" What a screwball world we live in and you will just laught out loud "
— Rita, 1/17/2014 -
" Maybe I have to re-read it. I know it's not perfect but I remeber it with great pleasure. "
— Mattia, 1/14/2014 -
" This book is really cool and has a really neat plot that is very creative. David Foster Wallace is quite unique, and his writing style is fun to read, very energetic. "
— Belle, 1/14/2014 -
" the key to his later fiction, I think. "
— Hibou, 1/9/2014 -
" An enjoyable cacophony of futility and text multimedia. "
— Ofchampions, 11/25/2013 -
" Very funny. A PLEASURE TO READ. "
— Josh, 11/22/2013 -
" One of my all time favorite memories of reading a book. DFW was my soulmate. What a horrible horrible loss of a great mind. "
— Maritess, 10/9/2013 -
" Well... This was unlike anything I've read before. "
— Jason, 12/22/2012 -
" i read this book years ago (and it's the only david foster wallace book I've ever been able to finish), but i found it hilarious. "
— Laura, 9/7/2012 -
" Good so far, interesting form of writing. Very dry, comedic sense. "
— Breadsticks, 7/25/2012 -
" I enjoyed the challenge of the metafiction style, the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the humor of David Foster Wallace. "
— Jenny, 6/17/2012 -
" I enjoyed the dialogue very much, but I wish the end had tied everything together. I don't regret reading it, but I likely wouldn't recommend it to a friend. I will try another DFW book and see how it goes. "
— Holly, 3/20/2012 -
" io pure tengo la gamba di legno col ripieno soffice. "
— Lorenzo, 3/3/2012 -
" Not thrilled with this book. It left so many things unfinished in the end. "
— Katrina, 2/15/2012 -
" Great until the end. Ridiculously unsatisfying at the end. I literally threw this book across the room upon finishing. "
— Chase, 2/3/2012 -
" The first chapter nearly put me off the book, but then the rest was much better. Odd. Very odd. And I think there was something at the end that closed off the story in a way that didn't quite make sense. like I was supposed to think it was a dream within a dream. "
— Jack, 6/13/2011 -
" Now looking forward to Infinite Jest. "
— Erk, 6/7/2011 -
" Very complicated book. Can't really stop reading it. But not exactly satisfying ending. "
— Phyllis, 6/4/2011 -
" Hard to review this book. His language is so beautifully written, but it is just a weird story from a weird man. "
— Judy, 4/28/2011 -
" Has its moments of transcendence, but veers too close to Pynchon's worst impulses at times. No Infinite Jest, but then, what is? "
— Josh, 4/24/2011 -
" My first David Foster Wallace novel, and I must say I loved it. Infinite Jest looks like it's gonna have to wait until I graduate from school tho. Yeesh. "
— Chelle, 4/23/2011 -
" Sublime about 15% of the time. "
— Michael, 4/20/2011
About David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) was the New York Times bestselling author of Infinite Jest, The Broom of the System, and Girl with Curious Hair. His essays and stories have appeared in Harper’s, the New Yorker, Playboy, Paris Review, Conjunctions, Premiere, Tennis, the Missouri Review, and the Review of Contemporary Fiction. He received numerous awards, including the Whiting Award, the Lannan Award for Fiction, the QPB Joe Savago New Voices Award, and the O. Henry Award.
About Robert Petkoff
Robert Petkoff is an actor and audiobook narrator who has won a prestigious Audie Award and multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice. He has appeared on Chappelle’s Show, Law & Order, and Quantum Leap. His Broadway credits include Sir Robin in Spamalot, Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, and Tateh in Ragtime.