Matthew McKenna’s Reviews > Infinite Jest > Status Update

Just %12.5 until I hit the endnotes. Time for a serious Blitzkrieg!

I'm calling intermission.

I have read and, more often than not, enjoyed novels that aim to shock, horrify, and/or disgust their audience, but until this I'd never read anything that was meant to antagonize me the way this novel does. It isn't just obscenely long, parts of this book are meant to make you want to stop reading it. Many of these tangents are the literary equivalent of "stop hitting yourself."

This is becoming increasingly Vonnegutesque.

I, at some point, read at least a third of this and forgot all but the most lurid and horrifying imagery. There were some images that even gin and morphine could not banish from the recesses of my mind, I just had no idea they were from this weighty tome. Nevertheless, I persevere!

Just hit %30. This is a serious labor of love.