Think now's your time to dive into the world of Hal Incandenza and Don Gately? These tips can help. After all, mine is creased at the spine, dogeared and inked up, littered with marginalia from another place and time. I'm sure I'm not alone in already being psyched for a new copy. This year, 2016, is the 20th anniversary of Infinite Jest's publication. Moments in the book had me laughing so hard my cheeks hurt as I sat on the lumpy futon in that studio. The characters, the shaggy dog plots, the pathos of confronting so many kinds of addiction that mirror our own cultural obsessions and manias - of course the novel is stupendous. ![]() When I was lonely or poor, confused or overwhelmed, Infinite Jest offered me a hyper-complete world into which I could escape. Wherever I went, I carried my copy of Jest with me. It has to be the hours I spent with David Foster Wallace's writing. I was in the grips of a break-up that wouldn't take, working part-time at a calling center, and subjecting myself to scary things like MRI studies to get cash. I was subletting a dingy studio, trying to figure out what to do after grad school. Side note: The summer I read Jest wasn't so pretty for me. One summer, six weeks: I read Infinite Jest. While I can't read the book - not even the end notes - for you, I can share my experience: years (five years) of trying and trying and trying, perpetually stopping around page 67, but, ultimately, finally succeeding. ![]() If one of your reading resolutions is to finally finish Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace's mammoth novel, I'm here to help.
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