A review by lauraborkpower
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

5.0

This took me months to read, and it was worth every mili-second. It's a book I think of often, in varied contexts and situations. I did question a bit toward the center of the book where Wallace described one of his characters as (paraphrasing here...) gave the illusion of smoking multiple cigarettes at once. He repeats this detail, and both times it gave me a jolt since it's the exact same way J.D. Salinger describes the young men awaiting their girlfriends on the train platform at the start of "Franny" in Franny and Zooey (my favorite). I'm unsure if Wallace uses it as an homage or if he's just plain stolen it. I briefly questioned his writing because of that, but the ultimate genius of this novel is impossible to ignore. It's ridiculously complex with plot and characters, though I wouldn't have edited anything. I'll re-read this eventually and make more decisions about the Salinger connection. It's also got over 100 pages of footnotes, so come prepared to this text with two bookmarks. Don't skip any of the footnotes (which I started to do, then had to go back and re-read them) because they're frequently stories in and of themselves and add serious layers to the overarching plot and characters.