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Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace

Start date: October 1, 2024

Finish date: December 31, 2024

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: 4th Quarter 2024 Long Reads
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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Oct 17, 2024 Franky rated it it was ok

Shelves: classics, letdown, 2024-reading-challenge, literary-fiction, american-dream, literary, philosophy, calling-it-a-day, closing-time, lifestooshort

I’m finding this behemoth of a novel a very difficult one to review.

I’ll give Infinite Jest some credit: it’s different for sure. Different than anything I’ve ever read. It seems to exist in so many genres and subgenres and is has a unique presentation. I had to pull the plug, though, because it was just too much of everything else.

Probably the one thing that this book has going for it is the moments of humor aimed at society. There were a few entertaining segments that are spot on, for instan I’m finding this behemoth of a novel a very difficult one to review.

I’ll give Infinite Jest some credit: it’s different for sure. Different than anything I’ve ever read. It seems to exist in so many genres and subgenres and is has a unique presentation. I had to pull the plug, though, because it was just too much of everything else.

Probably the one thing that this book has going for it is the moments of humor aimed at society. There were a few entertaining segments that are spot on, for instance, that are insightful and predictive of our future (there is a funny chapter dedicated to all of the problems of communication that reminded me quite a bit of the Zoom meetings we were forced to take part in during the 2020 lockdowns for instance). Also, the competitive tennis world scenarios were rather funny as well.

So why 2 stars? Basically, everything else. This book packs in various alternating storylines but within these storylines there is so much filler and superfluous, minute, overabundant nonsense thrown in that I literally had to skim over chapters just to get to something else. Footnotes and endnotes are everywhere as well. Alongside all the extraneous material, there was quite a bit of off-putting and/or depressing subject matter (drug use, mental health, etc.) that I just didn’t want to read about every day.

I stopped around the 400-page mark and it took me a month and a half to get there, and it feels like this book could have been trimmed down significantly. I could only read this book in small mouthfuls, 15 or 20 pages a day.

I watched a few interviews online with Wallace and he comes across well spoken and as some sort of genius. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean his writing will translate into a book people want to read. So I suppose the joke is on us. This was mostly a tedious and unrewarding read, not worth the investment in the long run.

That being said, I suppose I can see the appeal of this book to some readers. I am clearly not in this demographic though.
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3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 28, 2024 Rachel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: not-so-contemporary-fiction

This was a book that I enjoyed without understanding. I could get into a kind of flow state with its voice without being able to put the plot together at all (and admittedly, there were significant chunks toward the last 1/3 where I lost that flow state and really wasn't paying much attention)- and, anyway, the plot wasn't really the point. If Infinite Jest had been a painting, it would have been Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights.

Paradise has been fouled pretty much beyond recovery, ...more

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