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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
It was quite the journey. And the insights into alcoholism and addiction were genuinely incredibly cogent. I would revisit if my relationship with alcohol took a nosedive.
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
a dense bundle of tangents — fun to unpack for it's own sake if you're into that
“Time in the shadow of the thing too big to see, rising” is the best description of depression I’ve ever read. This book has held up pretty well to a twenty years later to a fourth or fifth read, but the part that always makes me feel so understood is the one conversation between Ken Erdredy and Kate Gompers in the halfway house.
I’m disappointed by his use of the n-word (yes, even though he’s using it to signal that someone was not raised any better) and I find the whole Poor Tony character tasteless, but the whole damn messy book is worth it to me just for this description of the neverending dread that is severe clinical depression.
I’m disappointed by his use of the n-word (yes, even though he’s using it to signal that someone was not raised any better) and I find the whole Poor Tony character tasteless, but the whole damn messy book is worth it to me just for this description of the neverending dread that is severe clinical depression.
Everywhere I see online people talk about how the book has changed their life. For about a year now I have tried and repeatedly failed to find a book that has that sort of quality, that enforces a paradigmatic shift in your attitudes towards the world, and I just haven’t found it.
I wanted to love Infinite Jest- but honestly- it is unsatisfying. And I get that arguably the whole fucking point of the book is that it’s unsatisfying, but I don’t think that’s a particularly intelligent way to write and market a book. It’s smug and self congratulatory to purposefully write an unfulfilling book and masquerade this unfulfilled as deep insight. I don’t mind- in fact, I often love- when books are left with the reader to fill in thematic or moral gaps, but struggle when the reader is expected to themselves concoct a satisfying ending and fill in plot gaps as well.
Yes, some sections are gorgeous and the language is insane, but I guess I just think it’s far shallower than it purports to be. Very readable though, for such a long book.
I wanted to love Infinite Jest- but honestly- it is unsatisfying. And I get that arguably the whole fucking point of the book is that it’s unsatisfying, but I don’t think that’s a particularly intelligent way to write and market a book. It’s smug and self congratulatory to purposefully write an unfulfilling book and masquerade this unfulfilled as deep insight. I don’t mind- in fact, I often love- when books are left with the reader to fill in thematic or moral gaps, but struggle when the reader is expected to themselves concoct a satisfying ending and fill in plot gaps as well.
Yes, some sections are gorgeous and the language is insane, but I guess I just think it’s far shallower than it purports to be. Very readable though, for such a long book.
4th time was the charm! The first 100-200 pages are extremely confusing (source: I stopped here each of the other 3 times). Things start making a lot more sense from 200-700 and from then on it all comes together. The catch with this book is it's 1100 fucking pages. BUT! That means you get like 300 pages of the good part, that feeling of racing towards the ending unsure how the author plans to wrap it up. And David did it beautifully. I'd like to just start re-reading this book again but 6-months was long enough... time for something shorter.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My adventures in reading started somewhat recently, in June 2008 I decided to read Catcher in the Rye and with it I remembered / realized that reading for pleasure (as opposed to required reading) was enjoyable. I followed this up by quickly reading 49 books (with OCD tenacity) in 4 months and made a goal to read this tome as the 50th book of the year, so in October '08 I started. I considered myself a fast reader averaging about 1 page per minute, but that quickly changed with this book, it would easily take me 5-10 minutes to finish every page, even longer on the fine print footnote minutes. I forced myself to read everyday for at least 30 minutes and eventually I burned myself out so about 300 pages in, this book beat me; I put it down and with it I almost completely stopped reading and for the next year I only read a hand full of books. I started reading again in 2010 and occasionally picked this up when I was in the mood, reading at this much slower pace made this book much more enjoyable, but it took me a very long time to finish, so finally in September 2011 I finished (about 35 months after I started).
I find this to be a difficult book to rate though, parts of it were great and parts were tedious, I almost would have preferred it to be a few hundred pages shorter. While reading it I might have rated it anywhere from 2 through 5 stars, but the second half of this book which focuses much more on the Gatley / rehab story line was mostly good and I left somewhat pleased, so I settled on 4 stars.
I find this to be a difficult book to rate though, parts of it were great and parts were tedious, I almost would have preferred it to be a few hundred pages shorter. While reading it I might have rated it anywhere from 2 through 5 stars, but the second half of this book which focuses much more on the Gatley / rehab story line was mostly good and I left somewhat pleased, so I settled on 4 stars.