Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

I've seen this somewhat cerebral novel described as 'difficult' by a number of reviewers. Other than the length (which I rather enjoyed), I didn't find Infinite Jest difficult or even challenging in the 'challenging to follow' sense (although DFW's vocabulary puts mine to shame). Rather, the central themes (addiction/competition/family/commerialization/etc/etc) and characters (both ETA and Ennett House) were well-developed, perhaps due to the obvious time and care devoted to each separately as well as the connections between them. The writing was both deep and amusing, and I found Inifinite Jest to be a page-turner, especially near the end when I became inpatient for the answers to my questions. (What caused Hal's illness? What happened with Pemulis/the Entertainment/Orin? Was Joelle actually disfigured with acid? Why exactly did James Incandenza stick his head in a microwave and demap himself? Will Gately survive/stay clean?) The ending was incredibly unsatisfying at first - abrupt and jarring not because it left all these questions unanswered (but with equally weighty support for multiple explanations) but because of the unexpectedness of the timing of the ending. This feeling was perhaps heightened for me because I read IJ on the Kindle and didn't have that physical feel of being near the end of a long book to warn me of its imminent termination. Upon reflection, I actually quite like the ending - much like the novel often describes how The Mad Stork's films constantly made viewers cognizant of the film itself rather than the plot or characters, IJ's ending (and frequent footnotes) makes you aware of of DFW's opus as a novel. What exactly was he trying to say with his abrupt finale?

I'm not going to go into each character or theme here - although I'm certain I can write nearly an essay on each. Instead, I'm going to tell you what I think happened, which is of course the beauty of the amibiguity. Like the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books I read as a kid, this IJ lets you decide not only how you would like things to turn out, but also gives the reader insight into how he/she thinks about the world and characters - a window into your own psyche. In my IJ Universe 1) Orin is not killed by the AFR, but is permanently injured from kicking the glass (ending his pro-football career) and tormented by the roaches, preventing him from further taking advantage of Subjects. 2) Joelle is actually disfigured by acid (otherwise why would Orin have left her and the Mad Stork have become interested in her), giving her a kind of hideous beauty. 3) Gately survives and is not prosecuted. He stays off drugs and hooks up with JvD. 4) Orin tries to go back to JvD in his new damaged state, and grows as a person (and maybe makes up with Avril) when she won't have him. 4) Pemulis, in his fear and anger at getting kicked out of school, wants revenge on Avril and Hal. It makes sense that he's dose Hal's toothbrush with the DMZ, causing Hal's illness. The timing works out. I don't think Hal saw the Entertainment (although it was made for him). I don't think he took the DMZ himself. Pemulis-mediated revenge would be such a nice cohesive ending. But I don't think Pemulis did it. He's too overcome by the missing stock - trying to talk to Hal, digging in the dumpsters. I think either someone else dosed Hal's toothbrush (although I have no idea who it would be) or that the mold from his childhood was actually the culprit (maybe he actually WAS silent when he thought he was talking to the Mad Stork and it was Hal, not the Mad Stork, that was losing it). How ironic if Avril's fear of dirt/basement ended up destroying her son. I'd like to think that Hal at somepoint will come out of his breakdown, but I doubt it. Instead, his problem may make him into the perfect tennis player (not thinking too much) and he can be a huge success in the show (even better than John Wayne). 5) CT was definitely Mario's father (and Avril's blood relative). This is actually pretty clear in the text, and so isn't much a stretch. 6)Finally, I think the AFR find The Master in Incandenza's coffin, but Remy's betrayal leads to ONAN success and AFR failure. Remy's wife is 'saved' by the very people that poisoned her, and as she no longer needs Remy, he loses his sense of self and ends it.

One person that I just don't 'get', even in my own personal IJ Universe, is Avril. She seems to be this driving cohesive force behind the story - her obsessions, her liasons, her Canadianness. But she doesn't seem to overtly cause any of the problems. Why does Orin break with her? It seems inconsistent for such a functional but OCD woman to be so sexually driven. What role exactly does 'the Moms' play in the events that transpire?

So that's what I think will happen, what will follow next from the given storyline. What does this say about me? I'll leave that to you to interpret.

As with any good piece of literature, Infinite Jest leaves you with more questions than answers, causes you to question your own world view and behaviors, search for your own addictions, address the incongruity of your actions with your belief system (like AA, we all do things that just don't make sense, but 'work'). I leave IJ questioning the value of certain things in my life (and deathly afraid of addictive substances). I highly recommend this novel to anyone who needs some perspective in their lives.