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yote_always_reading 's review for:
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Put aside all the mythology and stereotypes about "Infinite Jest" and just treat it like any other book. Yes, it's big and complicated, and it has footnotes and an appendix. But there isn't anything really daunting about it. What David Foster Wallace is asking readers is to just dedicate some time and patience. And for a book trying to understand what desire looks like in a hyper capitalist society that wants to get you addicted to your own desires, that time and patience is a real challenge.
I think this epic canonization that we trend towards always does a disservice to the work it's describing. This book is strange, it's about avant-garde film, tennis, drug addiction, and the philosophy of desire. There's no real plot, and spoilers, there is no resolve to the titular "Infinite Jest" tape. But the characters in this story are so fascinating. By the end of the book, I felt so heartbroken for Hal Incandenza, a character that feels so gutted from the inside, lost and struggling to come of age in a chaotic world. The empathy that AA is given in this book is thorough, honest, and I feel hopeful. It's a book that struggles and questions. At times its sad, at times its hilarious. The worldbuilding is so much goofier than its literary status gives it credit for, (the chapter on the advertising crisis is so funny.)
It's also not a perfect book. There are a few sections that I think should've been cut. The "Poor Tony" chapters are unnecessary, the few female characters are pretty flat and exist mainly for male characters, and there are frankly a lot of slurs. I get this takes place in Boston and so it's sort of a character/environmental detail, but it did make me uncomfortable. Still, at over 1,000 pages I was really surprised by how little I would cut. Most of the small fragmentary stories we move into are plot wise unnecessary but feel so important to include. This book just wants you to care about it and live in it for a while, and I think it earns that.
To be honest I listened to the audiobook for this, and I do recommend that. Being washed in Wallace's dense, academic writing helped me move forward and catch what he was getting at without getting lost in the syntax. I do have a physical copy that I annotated, and I can easily see how the massive blocks of text would seem too daunting for most readers. Don't worry, this book isn't a puzzle box of clues. It's okay to forget things or gloss a little, try your best to get to a point where you just feel it.
I also have to say, even though I love this book I don't really recommend it for most readers. I think you kind of need to read David Foster Wallace's non-fiction works beforehand to really contextualize what he's trying to get at here. If you are interested, I recommend listening to some of his interviews before you jump in. (This one here, "David Foster Wallace unedited interview (2003)" is one I relisten to a lot. https://youtu.be/iGLzWdT7vGc?si=qzXQHYUR0PHBoyYh)
Don't read this because you feel like it's important, read it because you want to read it.
I recommend this for
- David Foster Wallace fans
- People looking for challenging literary fiction
- Fans of 90s American satire
I think this epic canonization that we trend towards always does a disservice to the work it's describing. This book is strange, it's about avant-garde film, tennis, drug addiction, and the philosophy of desire. There's no real plot, and spoilers, there is no resolve to the titular "Infinite Jest" tape. But the characters in this story are so fascinating. By the end of the book, I felt so heartbroken for Hal Incandenza, a character that feels so gutted from the inside, lost and struggling to come of age in a chaotic world. The empathy that AA is given in this book is thorough, honest, and I feel hopeful. It's a book that struggles and questions. At times its sad, at times its hilarious. The worldbuilding is so much goofier than its literary status gives it credit for, (the chapter on the advertising crisis is so funny.)
It's also not a perfect book. There are a few sections that I think should've been cut. The "Poor Tony" chapters are unnecessary, the few female characters are pretty flat and exist mainly for male characters, and there are frankly a lot of slurs. I get this takes place in Boston and so it's sort of a character/environmental detail, but it did make me uncomfortable. Still, at over 1,000 pages I was really surprised by how little I would cut. Most of the small fragmentary stories we move into are plot wise unnecessary but feel so important to include. This book just wants you to care about it and live in it for a while, and I think it earns that.
To be honest I listened to the audiobook for this, and I do recommend that. Being washed in Wallace's dense, academic writing helped me move forward and catch what he was getting at without getting lost in the syntax. I do have a physical copy that I annotated, and I can easily see how the massive blocks of text would seem too daunting for most readers. Don't worry, this book isn't a puzzle box of clues. It's okay to forget things or gloss a little, try your best to get to a point where you just feel it.
I also have to say, even though I love this book I don't really recommend it for most readers. I think you kind of need to read David Foster Wallace's non-fiction works beforehand to really contextualize what he's trying to get at here. If you are interested, I recommend listening to some of his interviews before you jump in. (This one here, "David Foster Wallace unedited interview (2003)" is one I relisten to a lot. https://youtu.be/iGLzWdT7vGc?si=qzXQHYUR0PHBoyYh)
Don't read this because you feel like it's important, read it because you want to read it.
I recommend this for
- David Foster Wallace fans
- People looking for challenging literary fiction
- Fans of 90s American satire
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Transphobia
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis