When I announced the fade theory book club last month, I didn’t know about Infinite Summer. But Brandon enlightened me, and I decided to sign up. I found a friend here in Tallinn with a copy of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, and picked it up last Tuesday and started reading in the car. I’m now on page 76. I’m supposed to get to page 94 by the end of tomorrow, according to the schedule. There’s a very good chance that I would never have read Infinite Jest without this extra bit of motivation. And now that I’ve started it, there’s actually a good chance I wouldn’t finish it without this extra bit of motivation. I’m on page 76, and still no plot has emerged. A theme, yes, but no plot. I’ve read many a plotless novel (hello, experimental fiction fan here), but I’ve never felt so restless about it before. There are definitely enjoyable and intriguing moments that keep me going, but there are also lots of cute terms and excess (if you ask me) verbage and other annoying/boring stuff like that. And there’s load of evidence of drug usage on the part of DFW, and I’m not just referring to the constant mention of drugs and drug use in the text. (Not that I care-I’m just sayin’.)
Did I mention this book is the size of a dictionary?
P.S. I originally wrote this post on 29 June 2009. More thoughts to come (very soon).
