So I want to thank, once again, Bill for his extraordinary service, but also his extraordinary friendship and loyalty to me.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama on the Resignation of Chief of Staff Bill Daley | The White House

The smart and entertaining result, published in 1987 when Wallace was 24, is covered in the fingerprints of his literary heroes, particularly Mr Pynchon but also Don DeLillo (with whom he went on to enjoy an epistolary friendship).

ECONOMIST: The fevered imaginings of a dazzling American writer