I’m sure there are lots of good things about Liar’s Club author Mary Karr’s Lit, a memoir about motherhood, sobriety and finding religion that comes out in November. But when we received our advance copy today, we headed straight for the chapter that describes her relationship with the late, great David Foster Wallace, referred to here as “David of halfway-house fame.” Alas, their affair—in Syracuse while he was still in his twenties—lasts for only three pages, but the passage vividly captures the hotheaded passion of both Karr and Wallace, who got “Mary” tattooed on his arm before they even kissed. He throws a coffee table against a wall during one of their apparently colossal fights, which sounds like pretty bad behavior, even for a genius. But it’s hard to read this now and not think about the Infinite Jest author’s chaotic emotional life, and how that must have played into his suicide last September.