You might be wondering what happened to me these past few months, but then when you see that I’ve been reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, you’ll most likely sigh and think, “What has that idiot gotten up to?” during this time!”

Or effects in that sense.

My first foray into the works of Mr. Wallace, before reading Infinite Jest, was a few years ago walking past this book in bookstores and knowing from the Infinite Jest cover and the ‘vibe’ of the book that it was popular.

Unfortunately, it turned out that I finally bought the book to read it after learning with some delay that Mr. Wallace had committed suicide.

In the foreword to this book (featured author Dave Eggers) writes:

“Page for page, line for line, it is probably the strangest, most distinctive, and most complicated work of fiction by an American in the last twenty years. As you read Infinite Jest, you are never unaware that it is a work of complete obsession, of a stretching of the mind of a young writer to the point of, we assume almost madness”.

Mr. Egger is the author of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, a book I have not read, but those words and that title could be the title of a biography of Mr. David Foster Wallace, since his untimely departure has affected significantly expanded memory regarding his work in the realm of the Unknown.

“Wallace committed suicide on September 12, 2008, as confirmed by the autopsy report of October 27, 2008.

In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace’s father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive.

-From Wikipedia

Completely Original Infinite Jest is reminiscent of Gravities Rainbow, not so much in tone or girth, but in its complete and utter original voice. One doesn’t just read Infinite Jest, one is read by it. There it sits in your book corner while you go on with your life, and for the life of me it doesn’t let go. I started reading Infinite Jest 2 months ago and really took my time, at first I was hoping I could read it fast but then I realized that won’t happen. I gave up and literally read 10 pages a day, something I haven’t done since Proust. Just for the last 400 pages of Infinite Jest I started reading 20 pages a day. So, you see, take it with a serious mind.

First of all, Infinite Jest is 981 pages of pure audacity. This book is Bold with a capital A. Here is a writer who has a powerful and singular voice and it amazes the reader that at times, through the stories of his small cast of characters, you can find yourself deep in the groove of Mr. Wallace’s great storytelling ability. . It’s rare as hell to be able to write like a real storyteller. It’s amazing to find a work like Jest in this world where Pablum is the goal and repetition the rule. Under Mr. Wallace’s command, the Infinite Jest begins to weave a very unique spell.

There is a unique family at Infinite Jest, a family that seems to have creativity at its core with several young sons who are athletes, especially Hal Incandenza… the father of this clan, Jim Incandenza, is a former director/creator. of wacky offbeat movies, this father seems to have a cloud over all the participants in this family, as he, the father, is long dead in the novel’s present tense and author Wallace makes it abundantly clear that the late father ( microwave suicide!) is almost a haunting presence to this family of young tennis wunderkinds. However, the mother of the family, Avril Incandenza, is still alive and is a trustee of the Enfield Tennis Academy (“ETA”), where much of the ‘action’ of Infinite Jest takes place. During the book there is a mysterious videotape created by the late father Jim Incandenza that seems to have a paralyzing effect on the viewers, essentially turning them into living vegetables… this tape is investigated by a government agency with a very strange effect… the title of the tapes is Infinite Jest. There’s really no resolution to these plot points and I’m just writing them down, because as you delve into Mr. Wallace’s Infinite Jest you might not like what you’re reading, there’s a lot about the book to hate, but surely you will not be touched by it.

Mr. Wallace has another part of the book that runs from beginning to end. The obsessive compulsions of addiction are in evidence. Most of the people in Infinite Jest are substance abusers or seriously ‘twisted’ in one way or another. However, Mr. Wallace is so down to earth about matters that he doesn’t seem to care one way or the other what you think. A little later in the book, Mr. Wallace introduces us to Don Gately, a former thief and demerol addict, who now works for The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, which appears to be just down the street from the Enfield Tennis Academy. Don Gately is a huge man who is a rabid AA member in the Enfield household, and when we find out about him, we see that he is finally free of the drugs and binge eating that have plagued his life. These ‘Gately’ sections of the book are more revealing to me than the tennis and Incandenza parts of the tale. Mr. Wallace is so proficient in his understanding of drugs and their use that one is very realistically drawn into Gately’s life story, which is heartbreakingly ordinary in his American brutality. Let’s face it, this nation is no comfort to the disenfranchised, and sadly, there is still no religion that addresses anything resembling the emotions, needs, and desires of a large population of “waste” America. It’s a huge do-it-yourself population without a hand or hope in Hell of ever getting ahead of the monster that has become America’s gentry. Mostly Alka-Seltzer who talks a game but, in the end, isn’t interested in America’s troublesome Inner-Core. These people who fall into the rift are generally good people in the end and have amazing survival skills, just like Mr. Wallace’s Gately, a giant who is very recognizable to Americans of this nation who don’t live with a laugh track.

Don Gately’s story is the vibrant core of the book and, in fact, could have been everything. As he reads Infinite Jest, he’s never quite sure where Mr. Wallace is leading us. However, he is so in command that he surprises. He doesn’t feel the feeding masses running along with Mr. Wallace’s mind. His world is entirely his.

In Mr. Eggers’ Foreword, he expresses a wish from the publisher, Little Brown and Company, of Infinite Jest; the need to show others that the book is at least accessible. That can be read by Anyone. Which, actually, is funny because I’m sure it would be nice to sell more copies, and surely the publisher is honored to have this book as one, who wouldn’t be?

However, Infinite Jest is not an accessible work. In fact, it’s very unapproachable, even though good old Mr. Eggers talks about the readability of it, he realizes as he reads it that he’s either 100% interested or not at all. Mr. Wallace doesn’t exactly demand our participation, he doesn’t give a damn, but it’s his choice…

infinite frivolity.

How this book will live on and influence generations to come will be an interesting thing to witness. I don’t think Mr. Wallace has found his true audience yet, though, sure, college students and academics know this, but it may take a new generation of men or women to unlock his popularity and features… no However, as an artifact, Infinite Jest is such that it should shine beyond the usual Fray of more ordinary works. He is a Guardian, alright, but what kind of Guardian is not yet known. Mr. David Foster Wallace, his life and death, such a thing, to end life at his own will, we must respect Mr. Wallace’s decision, those of us who don’t know him, and let his essence, for now, be break the heart

In fact, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius describes Infinite Jest and Mr. Wallace very well.