"Infinite Jest"

I haven't written a post in over two weeks, I've been on a mission. In my December 28th post, I commented on my new Christmas toys, one of which was a new Kindle Reader. At that time, I had just started the book, "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. I'm proud, and somewhat relieved to say that I finished it today. One thousand and fifty nine pages of the toughest reading I've ever encountered. I'm only somewhat relieved to be finished, because I wish he had invested another three years and one thousand pages and finished the damned thing. It just ends, no plot resolution, characters in limbo, loose strings untied. No sequel, the author committed suicide in 2008. Still, it's one of the best books I've ever read. The author wrote the most insightful and descriptive passages that you will ever find in modern literature. Here is a very brief synopsis.

The book (published in 1996) describes a slightly futuristic America in which the United States, Canada, and Mexico have formed a loose coalition called O.N.A.N., with the USA as the dominant partner. The plot centers around a tennis academy founded by an eccentric scientist and film maker, and around a recovering addict halfway house just down the hill from the academy in Boston Mass. The main characters include the three sons of the academy founder; One a tennis prodigy and student at the academy, one a professional football player, and the third, a mildly retarded and handicapped idiot savant. There is Don Gatley, the recovering substance abuser and murderer, and Madam Psychosis, the formally beautiful woman who is a member of a group of hideously and improbably deformed people who have sworn to always wear a veil in public. There is a group of wheelchair bound Quebecois separatist terrorists, who are pursuing a sinister plot to kill Americans through the use of a film , which, if watched, removes the will of the viewer to do anything but watch the film. A cross dressing spy, a sadist dog killer, and at least a hundred minor characters that get major play. Of course they are all integral to the plot. I guess you would classify the book as a dark science fiction comedy, although large portions of the book are neither dark nor comedic, and the book feels more prescient than science fiction.

I think that I am going to read fifty or so works of popular fiction, and then read "Infinite Jest" once again.