Books like Understanding David Foster Wallace

The problem with Boswell's book can be summed up in this quote:"Therefore, in the same way that a coherent reading of The Broom of the System first demands a familiarity with Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, a cogent interpretation of Infinite Jest first entails a brief encounter with Lacanian theory."EXACTLY the kind of high-academic pretension that puts people off reading DFW. If I'd thought I first had to read Wittgenstein, and whatever supplemental material needed to help me understand Wittgenstein, I'd have never gotten around to Wallace. And Lacan, the man Boswell describes as having "bewilderingly difficult theories about desire, pleasure, subjectivity, and infantile preoccupations with mothers"? Would a "brief encounter" even be enough? And why does he make it sound like an unfortunate office party incident?Otherwise, Boswell's arguments -- though often dry as parchment -- are generally sound and he offers a decent primer for anyone interested in the deep theory stuff Wallace was into. Just know it's not mandatory to have a PhD to enjoy Wallace: the guy knew fiction's real frisson happens on a relatable human gut level. P.S. Understanding DFW is riddled with typos and errors; it's as though there wasn't even a cursory proofreading. Editorial sloppiness on this scale is weird in a professor's work. Pray his students don't have it on hand at term paper time.