The post-post-modernism of Wallace, Franzen, Lin and Díaz

This essay examines four novels as responses to the themes and philosophical attitudes set by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest: Wallace's own unfinished novel, The Pale King; Jonathan Franzen's Freedom; Tao Lin's Taipei; and Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The authors listed, all writing in the 21st century, are part of what can be provisionally described as a "post-postmodern" reaction to the postmodern literature of America in the latter half of the 20th century.