Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

"Though there were times in the novel where it seemed like things were connecting and making sense, the ending overall left me bewildered and asking myself what the Hell did I just read?" 

2 Stars. 

Pros: There were some truly hysterically funny moments/Hal is a conflicted but likable character as is Don Gately and many of the other characters. 

Cons: There were many, many times where I had absolutely no idea what I was reading, who I should be concerned about, what it all meant/The lack of a more or less linear plot and the ending really just fell flat. 

Full Review: 

I'm finding it almost impossible to put this book into words. 

There are many, many separate story lines that are all happening at once and all involve numerous characters but the main ones seem to be (and emphasis on seem to be because this whole book left me feeling disconnected with reality) as such. 

Hal Incandenza is the youngest son of the late James O. Incandenza, the founder of an elite Tennis Academy in the Allston/Brighton area of Boston. E.T.A. or Enfield Tennis Academy houses some of the best and brightest future tennis players but there's a dark side. Hal's father, James, committed suicide one early November and Hal was the one to discover the body. His mother is smothering but aloof all at once and Hal's oldest brother Orin has moved all the way out to Arizona and refuses to talk to anyone but Hal. There is a strange love triangle between Orin, the Father, and a girl named Joelle that seems to have soured the whole family dynamic. Most everything that happens to Hal, happens at E.T.A. 

Don Gately is a live in staffer at a residential halfway house, Enfield House, down the hill from E.T.A. He had his time of addiction and recovery and is now living the sober life and trying to help others find their way to the path of sobriety. A whole slew of characters come in and out of Enfield House with a whole cacophony of problems and addictions and this is one of the places where the story-lines start to connect, or so the reader thinks. 

Remy Marathe is a member of an elite, secretive assassins guild from the terrorist country of Canada (yes, you read that right.). He is double crossing his guild to then double cross the service of the "American" department he's spying for all for the sake of finding his wife medical treatment for having been born with no skull (yes, you also read that right.). Most of his plot takes place with an agent of the "American" department he's working for, Hugh Steeply, on a cliff-side in Arizona. 

The book is 1,079 pages long and that includes 96 pages of "Notes and Errata" which you actually do have to read in order for the book to make even the smallest semblance of sense. Some of the end notes are actually helpful. Some explaining AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) terminology, others go into more depth about Hal's disastrous family life, while still others explain exactly what the guild is that Marathe belongs to is all about. Then you have the end notes that consist of the 8 pages of the late James Incandenza's filmography, the "street name" for any drug you can possibly imagine and also end-notes that have end-notes. 

There is a point in the novel, around page 500 - 700 where you start to feel like everything's connected. The pieces are moving, the puzzle is being solved. But then...the ending just...I was left blinking and wondering if I had perhaps missed something, if maybe my version of the novel was missing pages. But as far as I can tell it's not and I'm left to wonder at the open-endedness of it all. 

There were no conclusions, no periods of closure, no pieces truly clicking into place. And I think THAT is what bothers me the most. The book starts off so strangely and you continue to read, hoping beyond hope that it will all be explained, that it will all make some sort of sense in the end but then, nothing. 

I'm proud of myself for reading the book in less than a month. And if I'm ever excruciatingly bored and feel like giving it another go, wondering if perhaps it's the kind of book that makes more sense the second time around, perhaps I'll consider it. But for now, I am done and finished. 

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a thoroughly challenging read. A read that leaves you often baffled, at loose ends and unsure as to whether what you're reading is actually happening or not. I have completed Infinite Summer in less than a month. Now onto something lighter (though to be honest, any book in comparison to this will be considered "light.")