And so yet another book I am currently reading (though not aloud or with Danielle) is David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I am 225 pages in; my paperback copy runs about 1100. You may have read it, or maybe not.
And so though I haven't finished IJ yet, I can barely describe how consistently amazed I am by this novel. It is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking; it is likely the most consistently inventive novel I have ever read (editor's note - it's certainly not impossible I have a limited scope); the prose is brilliant and unpredictable and adapts to the characters and the narrative at hand; and, if after One Large Sapphire you would allow me to separate "language" from "prose" (in my head "language" the words; "prose" the delivery system), it reminds me of my favorite novel, Joyce's Ulysses (mentioned in back to back posts, so you know my leanings - I have read Ulysses twice, the second time aloud with Danielle).
And so what I'm trying to say in my own subtle way is I think this is a really good fucking book; anybody who might be coming along for the ride at the same time please check in here.
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I had been considering taking the plunge for a while. You have moved me considerably closer to the edge of doing so. Thanks. By the way, and I am not sure this matters to a reader in the end, DFW seemed from all appearances to be both a smart and a good guy. How often do you see those together?
ReplyDeleteNot that often, I don't think. I'm also reading a book of stories of his, Girl With Curious Hair, and just finished up some of his essays in the Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again collection (thanks, Cat). George, I might recommend to you the essay on David Lynch in that collection.
ReplyDeleteI have Nick to thank for my intro to DFW; he'd read the piece on the visit to the County Fair and insisted that I read it ASAP. That still makes me laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteJust discovered when helping my mom thin out her books prior to her move: autographed first edition of Infinite Jest, which I've never read, so I'll await your final assessment before I take the plunge myself.
Qua mega-fiction, it can't help but be more compelling than Musil...not to mention Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. To be fair, colonoscopy is also more compelling than Clarissa.
Paulie - I have less than 100 pages to go and I still love it. I'm already wondering how different it will be when I re-read it, too...
ReplyDeleteSigned first - Cheers...