Infinite Jest (2014)

Formative. ( )

I really got bogged down in this one, lost momentum, and ended up spreading it out over way too many weeks. I felt good after getting to the end, but if I do someday decide to reread one of Wallace's novels, it will be "The Pale King," not this one. ( )

The footnotes, beyond having extremely relevant information, whole chapters, and pure hilarity, by flipping back and forth, you mimic a tennis match. Do not skip them! ( )

I have no idea how to rate this book. Or how to even write a review.

Never before did I go through a roller coster ride in a book like this.

At the beginning I wanted to throw this book out of the window (or rather delete it from my Kindle), burn it (delete from my computer) and write the most horrible review possible about this unreadable dreck.

Well, then after about 200 pages in it suddenly started to grew on me, the writing style, the stories that started to interact and I was really looking forward to the outcome.

And then it ended and I am like, so that was it? I felt a bit unsatisfactory. Like you can almost come during, sex, but right before ... it ends.

So, if someone looks for advice if this book is readable, I honestly can't. On one side I say, it was sure not worth the long time I read this book (good three months) and the amount of concentration you have to out into it. You just can't open that book and read it, you really need to concentrate on it. This is really hard work. But it can be really nice to read, and really interesting, but then it ends like this ...

And the footnotes. Good 400 footnotes. Oh and some of the footnotes have footnotes too. And then some of the footnotes footnotes have footnotes. Never before have I seen that in any book I ever read. And some of those footnotes are like full chapters long. You really need to read them. Reading them post the book is kind of awkward (that is what I did).

After all this, I just give it three stars. The first 200 would have been 1, then I would have given it 4, but at the end I will settle with three. Three is good. Neither bad nor outstanding. Good. "Befriedigend" as the german would get in school. Let's leave it at that. ( )

From a distance this novel appeared to be an overhyped, far too long, not worth the time endevor. However, I fell down some rabbit hole on Youtube and ended up watching DFW in an interview with Charlie Rose and I was intrigued. It seems he wasn't to blame for this book's aggressive marketing. I thought I'd start with his more widely acclaimed nonfiction, but on a whim picked up Infinite Jest.

After the last eighty hours or so it took to read this novel, I'm of the opinion that this is one of the greatest works of American Literature. Certainly the best novel set in Boston (sort of). It's an absolute masterpiece. As many others have said, there are portions that seem completely irrelevant, inane, or just plain dumb. Yet, these stupefying passages only seem to amplify the moments of profound insight and emotional depth. Something of a cross between Ulysses and FW, the novel is intensely demanding on the reader. Not only are you forced to constantly flip between the narrative and the hundreds of endnotes, I needed a dictionary and wikipedia on many occasions.

It belongs in the cannon of truly important and original phone book size novels.

It is most definitely worth the time.

Much like the film that the title refers to, I had the unhealthy desire to restart the novel once I finished reading the last page. ( )