Amazon.com: Customer reviews: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Top positive review

Great read

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2023

I’ve picked up and reread this book three times since I bought it, and keep it in my coffee table for an easy grab. It only takes a short while to read, and you feel better once you’re done. I’ve since bought a couple as gifts since then, too. Very thought provoking.

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

WayneChicago

Fragmented scraps from an author that demanded his readers digest the whole hog.

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014

A moving 22-minute speech when delivered by David, the audio track readily available on your favorite online video channel.

A well-documented and easily Google-able text, entire speech, on the internet.

And now, for those that require hardcover or digital books to slow down their reading, to create "atmosphere" in order to better appreciate the words of Mr. Wallace, there is this book, with one or two lines per page, 140+ pages, hardbound, for your pleasure. Like reading a fortune cookie, one might read a page a day to savor the zeal of the graduation speech. Conversely, one could sit and read the entire book in less than the time it took David to say it, aloud, at Kenyon College. The extremes are allowed by this book.

I pity those that say they enjoy the speech broken into a few words per page to allow them to "slow down" and "appreciate the words". They must be ones to take ten dollars each day out of an ATM machine to control their spending. Perhaps these same people eat with a miniature fork to better enjoy food.

For the rest of us, who have self-control, the question is not of expense (this book is, unquestionably, the most expensive method for taking in this speech--the others are free); not of efficiency (the work being so short, we all have the time); not of pretty, bound baubles with eventually yellowing pages, broken-glue bindings and housing silverfish while aging on a sagging bookshelf (the bibliomaniacs among us will cringe); but of how best to take in the message. How best to connect with the author's intent.

Do newsroom soundbites reflect the context of a Presidential speech? Would Twitter's 140-character tweets do justice to the Gettysburg Address? Sadly, the answer is that the true context of words is held in the sentences in which they are homed; those sentences next dwell in paragraphs; paragraphs build themes.

And the overall message is lost in shattering a flowing speech into publisher-determined, bite-sized "nibbles", like smashed M&Ms that will leave one licking their fingers to get the last crumbs of chocolate from the bottom of the candy dish.

David Wallace, whether in Jest, King, Broom, or any of his essays and shorts, is best kept whole--the way he demanded it. The enforcer, Mr. Wallace was, of leaving things as he intended them. Only with a fight would he cut pages, re-work styles, or even change punctuation; the fragmentation of a monumental speech would be disallowed by the author. This is evident in any profile of Mr. Wallace, and in particular the DT Max biography (which is money much better spent if one wishes to "know" this author) Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace

To hear David's words, from his mouth, with his intonation and inflections, is priceless. Fortunately, that speech is archived elsewhere, as ubiquitous as butterflies in the springtime. And, best of all, it's free.

23 people found this helpful

2,259 total ratings, 296 with reviews

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From the United States

Maureen Johnston

Great read

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

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Adam Z.

A Sad Prediction Come True

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023

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Wallace cuts through the fog of popular psychology with refreshing clarity. The plain truth, he tells us, is that life and the world do not revolve around you. The sooner we figure this out, and sort our lives accordingly, the more likely we are to muddle through with a reasonable chance of staying sane. Sad that Wallace mentions suicide a number of times. Was he even then perhaps considering…?

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VSL

Well Appreciated

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2023

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I am a big DFW fan, so I was bound to like this anyway. This is a great hard bound edition that looks like it cost double - really, really nice. It is really meant for college grads, but the life lessons give a good head start to high school grads as well. My daughter is a deep thinker, so it was a good thought stimulator for her. This was a good traditional graduation gift and a great way to share my appreciation of DFW.

I will definitely purchase another copy when my next child graduates.

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Ahura Tzara

These Are Words To Live By

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

I honestly do not even know where to begin in describing this book. Fosters concise insights into the human condition are a revelation. I've purchased this book several times as a gift for friends, family, and co-workers because of my belief in the usefulness of this book. That's a funny way to describe a book isn't it? Useful. Certainly books can expand the mind and offer new ways of thinking about things, but often the enlightenment they offer is not practical. Plato's Republic is bound to give you plenty to think about and illuminate your understanding the human condition, but how can you truly put those lessons to use in the modern era? This is Water is a guide to life. Foster offers scenarios we are all familiar with and our reactions to them. He then proposes an alternate approach to these mundane activities that can relieve the stress and tension they so often create. My two takeaways from this book would be mindfulness and humility. Mindfulness in understanding that you are not alone in how you feel and that unknown circumstances you could sympathize with may be at factor in your interaction with others. Humility in that you do not know everything and that you are not the center of the universe. The ideas in This is Water are bound to be so obvious that you might dismiss it altogether, but that's the point. Foster explains how often it's the things right in front of us that we take for granted and the solution is putting that understanding in the forefront of our thoughts more often. William S. Burroughs famously said "The job of the artist is to show you what you already know." And in my opinion Foster satisfies that function.

32 people found this helpful

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WayneChicago

Fragmented scraps from an author that demanded his readers digest the whole hog.

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

23 people found this helpful

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Daniel J Lamonte

raw and real…

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2022

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And I hate using those words but they are the only ones that come to mind. I wish I could have been there to hear the speech live, to know him when he was alive… but reading this… the impact will continue on.

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Tina the S.

This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a...

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

I lovely short boo..each page reads almost like a Japanese koan, which was why, I think, it is written this way. One sentence to a page.. The texture of the boo also makes it a nice formal read. One can stop and reflect upon each Wise sentence as one carefully absorbs the rich meaning behind what is said and how the author chooses to say it. The book presentation is part of what the author intended to enhance meaning and it works! The audio book does not let in these pauses and the meaning and power of the words suffer from it. This book is NOT for listening, but is a short enough thing to have, to touch and to think upon as one goes through it... It clearly explains deep concepts about how adults should approach complex issues which require more than knee-jerk thoughts in response to what is written. The texture of this little book, it pages, its small size, all belie the raw power of the thoughts expressed so gently and with compassion for the reader and the author, both. DEEP nut simple. Lie zen for the American mind.

One person found this helpful

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Peter Aldino

Important answer to a vital life question

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2022

Verified Purchase

A short read of a big idea / reminder of what we should be looking at in ourselves every day, every moment. Meditate on this!

3 people found this helpful

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Xue Ying Gan

Inspiring Book

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: 'This is water.

One person found this helpful

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Sol L.

Lol $9.99 for a single essay paginated so it fills up 100+ pages

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

I can only blame myself for the impulse buy, but I guess I must also blame the limits of my experience. It's hilarious in retrospect how I assumed there would be other pieces besides the 1 commencement speech. Instead, there is the 1 commencement speech, a body once whole now dismembered into 134 sentences, each of which is given its own display, 134 pages for 134 sentences.

You can examine each vein of the chote, if you so please. I'd never experienced anything like this before.

So I guess I must thank Little, Brown and Company, and the Hachette Book Group, for expanding the scope of my experience, for adding a little nub at the boundaries of my knowledge of how publishers ~hatchet~ I mean, publish. Godspeed You!

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