Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace audiobook cover

Listen free with a trial

Start a free Audible trial

New to Audible? Start a free trial to listen: stream or download titles in the Audible app and cancel anytime.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the site at no extra cost to you.

See it on Audible

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays Audiobook— narrated by David Foster Wallace and Robert Petkoff

David Foster Wallace turns a Maine food festival, a porn-industry awards show, and a war over dictionaries into dazzling, branching essays about how to think, how to live, and how to actually pay attention. The premise is always a doorway, never the destination.

Why the audiobook wins

David Foster Wallace himself narrates portions of this collection, and hearing his own cadence, the parenthetical spirals, the sudden turns from wisecrack to genuine anguish, changes how the essays land. A voice this specific was always part of how Wallace's sentences worked; on the page you have to supply it yourself, and here you don't.

Whatever the assignment, a lobster festival, a porn awards show, a dictionary war, the real subject is always Wallace's mind working in real time, and audio is suited to exactly that kind of digressive, self-interrupting thought. Robert Petkoff fills in where needed, keeping the collection's voice consistent without imitating Wallace outright.

This is journalism as a genuine reading experience, doorways rather than destinations, and one credit or a free trial gets you the whole collection.

Prefer to read it?

More audiobooksEssays

Audiobook questions

Who narrates the Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays audiobook?
David Foster Wallace and Robert Petkoff narrate the audiobook edition of Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays.
Is the Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays audiobook worth listening to?
We scored Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays 4.5 out of 5. David Foster Wallace himself narrates portions of this collection, and hearing his own cadence, the parenthetical spirals, the sudden turns from wisecrack to genuine anguish, changes how the essays land. A voice this specific was always part of how Wallace's sentences worked; on…
Can I listen to Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays free with an Audible trial?
Eligible new Audible members can use a free-trial credit to listen in the Audible app. Eligibility and current offer terms are set by Audible.
Listen free with Audible

We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.

What formats is Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays available in?
On Amazon, Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays comes as a Kindle ebook, a paperback and a hardcover.

Keep listening