Maybe my favorite 1st sentence ever. Another comedic epic in the vein of Gravity's Rainbow (multiple plot / location structure definitely reminds me of Pynchon) and Ulysses. The footnotes make it uniquely DFW but honestly, that shit's annoying and doesn't add much. ( )

I read this in my twenties. Made me crawl up into a drug coma and mourn my pitiful intellect and writing ability. ( )

Stopped around pg. 100. What a natural flow of words! Reading this is as easy as floating down a stream, with unknown words causing ripples on every page and endnote-rapids occasionally. But the 3' thick book weighs about 8 lbs., and the regular interruption of reading for dictionary searches and endnote readings, plus the fact that there seemed to be more characters than in 'War and Peace' without (as far as I got) any sign of a story, made the reading seem like a job...and I'm retired.

In the opening chapter of Infinite Jest, we meet Hal Incandenza, a young tennis whiz in the midst of the college interview process. By the end of the interview, it becomes clear that Hal is unable to communicate in any understandable way. What isn’t clear is why. In the ensuing chapters, we meet Hal’s family and his fellow students at the Enfield Tennis Academy, a motley group of drug addicts and recovering addicts, and a pair of government spies. From the start, the time line is muddy; all we know is that we’re looking at some sort of alternate history of the U.S. and Canada. There are lots of unfamiliar slang terms and a maze of acronyms that readers are expected to just cope with. After about 200 pages, the setting and time line start to crystallize, but much about the story remains a mystery for many more pages, even as the narrative becomes slightly more traditional.

One of the many things Wallace is exploring in Infinite Jest is the difficulty of clear communication—how we can never really know what is in the mind of another. Characters often converse without hearing each other. The book’s structure and style add to the sense of miscommunication. Wallace is at times deliberately, obstinately opaque. His narrative style shows little interest in the reader’s perceptions and understanding, just as Pemulis doesn’t take an interest in Idris’s place in their conversation. Through the writing, the reader takes part in the characters' experiences.

This technique also comes through in the interminable passages on recovery from addition. Wallace shares what seem to me to be some smart insights about how trite the sayings and rituals at 12-step groups seem at first but how the continual habit of participating in the program makes it work, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

However, Wallace isn’t content to just share this insight and move on. He wants his readers to experience the drudgery of doing something over and over, hearing the same thing again and again, and over and over. At one point, about halfway through the book, these long passages had me fed up, and I nearly abandoned the book. I understood what Wallace was doing, and I even admired it, but I wasn’t sure I was getting much benefit from the experience, and I knew I wasn’t getting much enjoyment from it. Wallace’s devotees would say that’s the point; that life is not about our pleasure, and the benefit only comes from pushing through, but I’m not convinced that Wallace needed to go on quite so long to make his point.

This brings me to my primary problem with Infinite Jest. The excess. Wallace’s writing is amazing. It’s funny and insightful and rich with amusing references and even intentional, revealing mistakes. I loved his narrative voice, but it’s just too much. Too much story, too many characters, too many walls of text. Wallace himself seems aware of the excessIt’s intentional, sure, but is it necessary? Is it helpful?

Infinite Jest is an impressive work. There’s no doubt about that. Wallace has fun with language and character, and he has keen insights into the how we relate to each other and to the pain we find in the world. The structure of the book is such that I defy anyone to finish it and not think about it for hours afterward. Wallace makes it impossible for the reader to put the book down at the end, call it done, and walk away. That said, unlike many other readers, I doubt I’ll read it again. For me, this kind of writing is more successful in smaller doses.
See my complete review at my blog. ( )

Read this several years ago and am about to finish it a second time reading along with Infinite Summer. This book gets better with subsequent reads. Wallace is amazing on multiple levels! ( )