Infinite Jest

[allisona]

As I've mentioned before I've been following a journal called Mark Reads for the last six months or so. Mark chooses books to read and then reviews them chapter by chapter. So far he's only reviewed youth novels- the Twilight series, the Harry Potter books and presently The Hunger Games- but he's recently announced that he's going to branch out

Comments

[trektone]

I thought it was funny, kind of depressing, and had a lot of subplots that were interesting to read in the moment, but I found difficult to track and match up together as the book progressed.

Edited to add: I had read some of Wallace's short fiction and essays at the point INFINITE JEST was published and was interested enough to read it, but did not get to his famous first novel, THE BROOM OF THE SYSTEM, until later.

As an aside, IIRC catalana knew Wallace.

[iambic5]

I haven't read it, but my dad has. He really enjoyed it, and he's a literature enthusiast, so I trust his judgement. :D

[ohiblather]

I haven't read it yet, either. Now I'm tempted, tho!

[allisona]

I've decided not to read it right now. It just seemed more convoluted and difficult than I want for free-time reading at the moment. I did try a sample chapter on-line first. I will read Mark's reviews, though, and maybe they'll inspire me to change my mind sometime in the future.