I gave this one star, but I should update it to 2. The essay that attracted me first was on English usage, but it seemed daunting to tackle it. But once I got into it, that alone lifted my rating slightly.The rest of my early review went like this and is somewhat the same (unless I revise it again!):I had contemplated getting a Wallace book for a couple of years. I found my way there in part because of Amazon cross-reference suggestions and such ("people who bought this also bought THIS, etc.) and then I checked into it ... from what I read, his subject matter and writing style seemed up my alley.Maybe this was the wrong book to take the plunge, so I won't paint all his work with the same brush. But I found myself paging through this book, trying to find a good starting point. The Updike chapter was mildly interesting, but otherwise .... zzzzzz.I'm not wasting any more time trying with this one.