Scan barcode
cladcadaver's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I challenge anyone to not fall in love with this cast of sad pathetic weirdos
diemelanie's review against another edition
1.0
Was für ein unsympathischer Roman. Nur noch aus Trotz abgeschlossen.
shalpenny's review against another edition
This is my fourth attempt at reading Infinite Jest. I made it further than I had the previous times. DFW does great work with words, but this just wasn't my cup of tea. I enjoyed reading the portions about the halfway house and addiction, but struggled with other parts of the story. Around page 70 I became incredibly invested, but by page 108 I had completely lost it. I struggled to connect with the story or the characters.
lijohnlw1's review against another edition
2.0
Struggled through 10% of the book and had to put it down. Some interesting outlines of characters; not quite enough to sustain interest. Awkward writing style - deliberately verbose and stuffed with abbreviations that make it painful to read.
morets's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Addiction
Moderate: Suicide and Gun violence
emtt's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
dyno8426's review against another edition
5.0
This review will probably be the first impressions of this leviathan book because like many awe-inspiring things, it's hard to sometimes comprehend and hold together a thought in its entirety. And I don't mean it as an exaggeration, instead my experience with this book was like an on-off relationship, and also because it achieves what it clearly aims for, which is a barrage of information and literary experience. In fact, that's the pretty much first thing which makes any reader both starstruck by DFW's genius while breathing a sigh of relief/wonder after every hair-pulling episode of concluding a chapter. Saying that this book is unlike any other I've read, and will probably read (in all honesty, I still have hopes from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity Rainbow to change this opinion when I pick it up again after recovering from my abandonment issues), sounds like a cliche but I stand by it. It is a hyper-realistic prosaic journey which is saturated with details, descriptions and digressions of information, breaking down all conventional notions and comfort of being related or totally unrelated. The classical conventions of linear storylines or a consistent seeming form are long gone. Not only does it have tons of side-characters assisting the plot, each of them have complexities and background that I personally haven't seen before. I think the very first commendation DFW deserves outright is possessing this capability to capture the universe of his imagination with such precision and laying down the massiveness of his thoughts page after page, line after line towards something without getting lost in the grandeur of his own creative visions. Seriously, one can imagine how much hyper-sensitive the author of this book has to be in not only observing things around him through his personal experiences, but having that imaginative capacity to control the intricacy and sheer weight of the storylines that he chartered to carry upon himself. It is extraordinary and a tour-de-force in the form of communicating the experience of dysfunctional families and recovering drug addicts. This book also generously posses footnotes (which I personally am not a fan of and unfortunately ignored heavily in my reading though I did catch a few obviously good ones), but the diversity and care in developing the story there as well shows what an overflow of expression could possibly look like.
It is undoubtedly challenging at times to follow, thanks of DFW's total indifference in looking back what he has written. One cannot deny that, like some abstract expressionist, there's his isolation and immersion in the process of writing so much so that he does not look back at what mess he has created, literally. Some parts feel unedited, totally. If one could possibly develop a super-intelligent AI/machine which could gather all the worldly experiences and posses the capability to create literature out of it through its unique sense of expression, and then over-dosed it with < insert some potent drug >, it would probably come out something like Infinite Jest. While struggling into the flow of such a constantly varying prose and adapting to its ever-harassing waters, even non-sensical things start making sense after sometime and a "bigger picture" evidently comes up after one is able to abstract out the patterns of life among this noise of experiences. In that case, this attempt looks credibly intentional and applaudable as a literary feat. DFW's modernity comes in adopting this challenging form of expression for his melancholic thoughts, sprinkled with pitiful hilarity. But I also feel for those factions which criticise the unapproachability and confusion that this haphazard and too spontaneous a prose evokes. Is this really a gimmick? An attempt to be "no-one-gets-me" sort of cool, an artist's egotistical way of creating a distance and pedestal for him through this pretty thick (1000+ page) book? Personally, I don't think so; whatever my first reading let me grasp did make me appreciate it for what it is.
It is undoubtedly a statement on the modern consumerism of information and experiences which DFW wants to convey. That pretty much is what any edition's jacket of this book also contains. But there's this beautiful consistency in the content of this book and the form it takes. The pollution of information and the lures of whatever human life has to offer is universal and everywhere around us. Reading this book makes you realise not just the overwhelming state of human mind and condition in such an environment, but also makes you realise the emptiness of human life that such a noise is trying to mask. DFW's melancholy is sharp and universal, and modern day entertainment is a distraction creating, mind-numbing glue that holds the pieces of such a brittle life together. Human condition has the backdrop of suffering and whatever our senses experience through media, drugs or sex, always looks like a temporary show, which when over makes the silent backdrop even more haunting. While I did not personally like Hal Incandenza's part through his dysfunctional family that much, I loved Don Gately's part of expressing first-hand how scary a drug addict's psyche is. How recovery is not at all flattering and glorifying, but just an anti-dote to the vertigo of bottomless escape. The experiences of drug influence are visceral, totally uninhibited and very personal as coming from DFW (while the extent of personal truth can't be evaluated, but the honesty in his imagination and expression is unparalleled in my experience). Hal's story also parallels a blind pursuit towards The Show of professional tennis which consumes his free will and sense of identity. His occasional escapes also consists of discreet dependence on 'Bob Hope' (marijuana). Entertainment emerges as a byproduct of this modern society which perpetuates itself through feedback. All the characters which the author develops have their memories associated with their consumerist association with their various forms of Entertainment, and their dreams and fears both contribute in consuming and thus contributing towards the Entertainment.
Reiterating the impressive cohesion of this book's content with its form and idea, all this happens in a vaguely futuristic society where, as a corollary, the wastes of human civilisation provides a self-sustainable raw material for the production of the same energy which acts as a source to regenerate the byproducts of material human consumption. DFW calls it 'Annular Fusion', and I loved it how it tells more about the inter-dependence which an abstract concept as generic Entertainment and its consumption has taken place to fill the emptiness of conscious existence. The time in such a society is envisioned to be "subsidised" and sponsored by corporate conglomerates, taking advertisement to next level. There are better, more curated forms of media entertainment units and cinema products so engaging that they can literally take your life with an overdose of entertainment. Against such a setting, we have plethora of characters struggling towards and against such addictions, while dealing with the tragedies of human conditions and adjusting to the imperfections of human relationships. There are plenty of such beautiful sections of dense, emotional intensity which deals with the background of many such characters. And DFW does not tire from bombarding you with his artillery of obscure vocabulary and hacking up words to convey that their struggle for preservation of their sanity and tenderness is not unreal or exaggerated. I look forward to picking this up and going through it again because I'm pretty sure, it has facets which would rearrange to reveal themselves yet again in this crazy seeming mess of a book. Approximately four months with this book and I still feel that I am not done. If something does not have an end, is it always the same as being infinite?
It is undoubtedly challenging at times to follow, thanks of DFW's total indifference in looking back what he has written. One cannot deny that, like some abstract expressionist, there's his isolation and immersion in the process of writing so much so that he does not look back at what mess he has created, literally. Some parts feel unedited, totally. If one could possibly develop a super-intelligent AI/machine which could gather all the worldly experiences and posses the capability to create literature out of it through its unique sense of expression, and then over-dosed it with < insert some potent drug >, it would probably come out something like Infinite Jest. While struggling into the flow of such a constantly varying prose and adapting to its ever-harassing waters, even non-sensical things start making sense after sometime and a "bigger picture" evidently comes up after one is able to abstract out the patterns of life among this noise of experiences. In that case, this attempt looks credibly intentional and applaudable as a literary feat. DFW's modernity comes in adopting this challenging form of expression for his melancholic thoughts, sprinkled with pitiful hilarity. But I also feel for those factions which criticise the unapproachability and confusion that this haphazard and too spontaneous a prose evokes. Is this really a gimmick? An attempt to be "no-one-gets-me" sort of cool, an artist's egotistical way of creating a distance and pedestal for him through this pretty thick (1000+ page) book? Personally, I don't think so; whatever my first reading let me grasp did make me appreciate it for what it is.
It is undoubtedly a statement on the modern consumerism of information and experiences which DFW wants to convey. That pretty much is what any edition's jacket of this book also contains. But there's this beautiful consistency in the content of this book and the form it takes. The pollution of information and the lures of whatever human life has to offer is universal and everywhere around us. Reading this book makes you realise not just the overwhelming state of human mind and condition in such an environment, but also makes you realise the emptiness of human life that such a noise is trying to mask. DFW's melancholy is sharp and universal, and modern day entertainment is a distraction creating, mind-numbing glue that holds the pieces of such a brittle life together. Human condition has the backdrop of suffering and whatever our senses experience through media, drugs or sex, always looks like a temporary show, which when over makes the silent backdrop even more haunting. While I did not personally like Hal Incandenza's part through his dysfunctional family that much, I loved Don Gately's part of expressing first-hand how scary a drug addict's psyche is. How recovery is not at all flattering and glorifying, but just an anti-dote to the vertigo of bottomless escape. The experiences of drug influence are visceral, totally uninhibited and very personal as coming from DFW (while the extent of personal truth can't be evaluated, but the honesty in his imagination and expression is unparalleled in my experience). Hal's story also parallels a blind pursuit towards The Show of professional tennis which consumes his free will and sense of identity. His occasional escapes also consists of discreet dependence on 'Bob Hope' (marijuana). Entertainment emerges as a byproduct of this modern society which perpetuates itself through feedback. All the characters which the author develops have their memories associated with their consumerist association with their various forms of Entertainment, and their dreams and fears both contribute in consuming and thus contributing towards the Entertainment.
Reiterating the impressive cohesion of this book's content with its form and idea, all this happens in a vaguely futuristic society where, as a corollary, the wastes of human civilisation provides a self-sustainable raw material for the production of the same energy which acts as a source to regenerate the byproducts of material human consumption. DFW calls it 'Annular Fusion', and I loved it how it tells more about the inter-dependence which an abstract concept as generic Entertainment and its consumption has taken place to fill the emptiness of conscious existence. The time in such a society is envisioned to be "subsidised" and sponsored by corporate conglomerates, taking advertisement to next level. There are better, more curated forms of media entertainment units and cinema products so engaging that they can literally take your life with an overdose of entertainment. Against such a setting, we have plethora of characters struggling towards and against such addictions, while dealing with the tragedies of human conditions and adjusting to the imperfections of human relationships. There are plenty of such beautiful sections of dense, emotional intensity which deals with the background of many such characters. And DFW does not tire from bombarding you with his artillery of obscure vocabulary and hacking up words to convey that their struggle for preservation of their sanity and tenderness is not unreal or exaggerated. I look forward to picking this up and going through it again because I'm pretty sure, it has facets which would rearrange to reveal themselves yet again in this crazy seeming mess of a book. Approximately four months with this book and I still feel that I am not done. If something does not have an end, is it always the same as being infinite?
myakemovic's review against another edition
Too disjointed. Hard to follow. Random monologues about nothing relevant it seems.
elcapu's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
icecoldkarl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25