Infinite Jest

Okay, this had been on my list to read for a long time. Jeb started a blog about it and it jumpstarted me to start it too. (I'm nothing if not a good copycat.) I finished it last night. It took me about three months of regular reading, most of it done with a laptop handy to look up word definitions. I am glad I read it and I can say it is very good. It does have it's flaws though.

David Foster Wallace can go on at too great a length on some topics that are ancillary at best to the story. I find these little detours entertaining for the most part, but they can seem like showing off at times. Also, this book is a tough read, and I'm not only talking about vocabulary. It takes a long time to piece together when events fit into the timeline because of the non-linear storytelling. He will go into a detailed description of a minor character only for them to disappear into the void until they reappear in a completely new context hundreds of pages later. Immediately after finishing it, I started rereading some of the early material to refresh my memory and help fill in the narrative with details I had forgotten. This is similar to Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. I had to do the exact same thing because the opening narration is from the non-linear perspective of a mentally retarded character and is nearly impossible to understand without the rest of the story. After finishing the book, the first 80 pages made drastically more sense and I was able to actually enjoy them.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It is funny, unusual and provides an interesting look into the two worlds of drug and alcohol addiction and competitive tennis (not exactly two subjects that fit hand in glove). I don't know if I would recommend it to most people though. It depends upon their preferences. I could see many people justifiably becoming frustrated with the non-linear storytelling and not enjoying the book. In the end, I will probably read Wallace's other books down the road. Right now, I need a break from difficult literature and will probably be catching up on the comics I have fallen behind on while reading this.

Hah! I was just going to update the blog. I am about a third of the way through now. I read the ICE & FIRE thing in the middle there, and some other stuff too. I need to be able to focus when reading IJ, and my house is not super-conducive to this. I'll post some thoughts over there.

I was wondering what had happened to Jeb there. I'd been thinking about it since the new Stephenson book is out. I'm queued at the ol' library for it, because my love-hate relationship with him precludes me coughing up the dough.

My Infinite Jest remains unread, but I'm closing in on the end of the third AEgypt book.

Not Sure wrote: I was wondering what had happened to Jeb there. I'd been thinking about it since the new Stephenson book is out. I'm queued at the ol' library for it, because my love-hate relationship with him precludes me coughing up the dough.

My Infinite Jest remains unread, but I'm closing in on the end of the third AEgypt book.

Is that Neal Stephenson? I haven't read anything by him, but he sounds interesting.