Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore's great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho- babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

大卫·福斯特·华莱士无疑是位才子型的作家，他通晓各种风格的文学语言和叙事方式，并具有丰富的想象力、幽默感以及离经叛道的精神。《系统之帚》是作者的游乐场，华莱士充满激情、兴致勃勃地玩弄文字、玩弄语言、玩弄技巧。而且，华莱士写这本书的时候才24岁，真牛。