Wallace is coy about literary influences, although his reticence does not imply secrecy. In fact, Wallace is a true and voracious reader, one who gladly and openly comments on literature that has deeply affected him. However, it is difficult to precisely classify his work and, for that matter, any type of literary movement that his work might be said to emerge from. In his quest for originality and sincerity, Wallace dismisses literary "schools" as slavish and sycophantic, relegating them to what he calls the "crank-turners," novelists who adopt a visionary novelist's program and produce similar works thereafter, capitalizing on literary fads. It is perhaps more useful—though perhaps still vague—to see Wallace's work emerging simply out of the whole tradition of literature written in English instead of any one movement. Diverse writers such as John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins (whom Wallace particularly reveres...