1. The Relationship & Feud
Franzen and Wallace were literary contemporaries and close friends who famously had a complex, "competitive wounding" dynamic. After Wallace’s suicide, Franzen published a highly controversial, raw essay in The New Yorker titled "Farther Away". In the essay, Franzen expressed immense anger over Wallace's death, describing the suicide as an act that betrayed and inflicted pain on those closest to him. He also pushed back against the "saintly" public mythos surrounding Wallace, arguing that the late author was much more troubled and complex. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
2. David Foster Wallace's Literary Estate
Wallace's literary estate is overseen by his widow, the artist and writer Karen Green, along with his agent and attorney. The estate guards his legacy closely. For example, they formally disavowed the 2015 film The End of the Tour (based on the road-trip memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself), objecting to Wallace being turned into a Hollywood character. [1, 2, 3, 4]
3. Franzen's Ongoing Reflections
Franzen frequently writes about his late friend's work. In the years since Wallace's death, Franzen has explored the contrast between Wallace's pursuit of avant-garde, "art for art's sake" fiction and his own desire to remain grounded in social reality. Many literary critics also draw comparisons between the two; readers and scholars often note eerie similarities between Wallace’s famous characters and individuals found in Franzen’s later novels, such as his 2021 work, Crossroads.
