Rating: 
Summary: Showing off.
Review: *Infinite Jest* is about -- I THINK -- the denizens of a "tennis academy" that's academically accredited (are there such places? I'm pretty naive about stuff like this), as well as a group of drug addicts in a halfway house situated nearby. Any connection between the two seems to be oblique. Also, Wallace really belabors this massively uninteresting conceit that in the near future, time will be "subsidized" by corporations like Depend Adult Undergarments. This is not as funny as the author presumes. Along those lines, the notion of Quebecois "terrorists" in WHEELCHAIRS is as eccentric as stuff you'd read in contemporary "Southern" fiction, and just as wearisome. Some more of Wallace's great ideas: a sort of gigantic projectile-thingy that slingshots all our garbage into Canada, with whom we're apparently at war (wasn't this in a John Candy movie?) . . . child-sized hamsters, mutated as a result of all that garbage . . . a video cartridge that so hypnotizes the viewer as to literally kill him by starvation . . . so forth. If the above sounds like a good read to you, by all means, go to it.The characters? Well, the Incandenza family takes precedence, which is unfortunate because they're the least interesting group in the book, especially young Hal, matriculating under the watchful eye of his mother April and uncle at the tennis academy. I kind of liked older brother Orin, who is a punter for the Arizona Cardinals. But Hal, despite Wallace's best efforts to make him our compelling surrogate through all this foolishness, comes across a geeky cipher. (His constant quoting from the Oxford Dictionary doesn't help.) Hal has another brother, young Mario, whom the author has seen fit to endow with flipper arms and hands like fins. Why? The only major character who "connects" is drug addict Don Gately, but even here, Wallace haloes the character with such ponderous prose that even HE seems boring. Prose? Well, I admit there are some great moments -- indeed, that's why I'm giving this novel 2 stars instead of 1. Some of the best stuff is in the gimmicky "footnotes" at the back of the book, particularly the "filmography" of James Incandenza, wherein the author humorously catalogues some terrible-sounding movies. The synopses of the movies are a must -- pretty hilarious stuff. During the actual narrative itself, the book zips along quite nicely when Wallace drops the aggravating postmodern style and focuses on movement and development. I suspect such moments were the hardest for Wallace to write, because they clearly required some effort and thought. The postmodern stream-of-consciousness nattering clearly did not. While I don't doubt that Wallace is certainly smarter than me, maybe smarter than everyone in the world, that DOES NOT make him a good novelist. A novel is not a quiz show. In other words, I don't CARE how brilliant you are! WRITE A GOOD STORY! Also, don't invent conceits that trap you, i.e., Subsidized Time (one easily senses the grinding adherence Wallace forced on himself -- what starts out as a pleasantry becomes an albatross around the writer's neck, and ours). Finally -- and this is key -- stop trying to outdo Thomas Pynchon. He ALREADY WROTE *Gravity's Rainbow*. Dude -- try something else. Please!!
Rating: 
Summary: Just a word of warning...
Review: I'm not really going to try to add anything new to the 200 reviews already posted; all I'll say is that you should keep in mind the time committment this book will require versus what you expect to come away with. Infinite Jest will probably take you 2 months to read (1.5 if you're fast), and it consists of wildly entertaining and original episodes that don't necessarily equal a complete story. So if you think two months is a long time to spend on a book that doesn't reach any kind of real resolution, then Infinite Jest might not be for you; on the other hand, if you can put aside any expectations of receiving a good ol' fashioned exposition/climax/denoument and just appreciate the mastery of language and humor, then the two months might be worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: An Olympic Sized Simming Pool for the Brain
Review: The novel's beginning is so odd and somewhat off-putting as to be like a qualifying round. One is disoriented but at the same time being lulled by language and phraseology that will become consuming. Then the chapter re: the pot-debauch and you know you're caught and in deep trouble. Read it for an hour and you begin speaking in long, parenthetical sentences. It will make you think that it's changing the way you think and look at the world but also make you a bit self-conscious about whether you're supposed to be taking it all that seriously. I loved it, and feel like if DFW were to decide to start the church of Infinite Jest I would join. Isn't that stupid?
Rating:
Summary: The answer is...(might be in footnote)
Review: I would never admit to being close to a literary reviewing expert. But, I feel the need to add to the large commentary regarding this book. I spent the summer of 1997 (the entire summer) reading this book. I just about lost a girlfriend over it as well as my sanity. Never have I experienced a story that kept me simultaneously so captivated, frustrated, and entertained before. Captivated because of the neverending feeling to read every single word to make sure not to miss a major moment in the storyline. Also, the overly dysfunctional cast are very endearing to follow around. Frustrated, because many times the wild goose chase for meaning came up empty after weaving through many pages of very small font footnotes, I found myself reading a boatload of pages in an already long book over and over again to comprehend what was being said (stilted), and lastly I arrived to page 1200 something or other and wanted more!!!! Entertained because the breadth of DFW's subject coverage, humor, surprises out of left field, and commentaries on everything from addiction, to government, to family, to the ugliness in extreme beauty, pitfalls in the possibilities of future technology, and of course international defense and displomacy cross-bred with tennis will keep you wanting to stay til the end. Upon crossing the finish line, I realized I was pulled into someones else's interesting and strange world for a summer, Isn't that what fiction has the potential to do anyway? And as humorous as this story can be at times, the infinite jest part of the equation I believe had to do with ME, the reader. Good one David, thanks. PS For those of you who want to get a taste of DFW, "A supposed thing..." is easier to read.
Rating:
Summary: Beware the infinite!
Review: This book is an absolute epic saga of the the weirdest people ever to ever haunt the pages of Po-Mo literature. Ever wonder what a seizure is like? How about getting wedged in the little bathroom vent window on a mass-transit bus? How about a lengthy description of an armless and legless man trying to light a cigarette? You think our President is crazy? Did you ever hear of a society for the hideously deformed? How about militant Canadian wheelchair assassins? How about gigantic fans that blow toxic fumes into what was formerly known as Vermont? How about a film that's so good that it makes you totally subservient; a movie so good that it destroys everything inside you except for the desire to KEEP WATCHING! That's only a piece of what this book is. It's absolutely absurd. It's completely stupifying. If you had any sense at all,you'd avoid this book at all costs. It will consume you from beginning to end, and it will haunt you and make you laugh for no apparent reason long afterward.
Rating:
Summary: don't bother
Review: it isn't worth it I swear don't start hate this finally finished had to start all over, mass confusion, still reading again, re-, can't purge. . .read house of leaves it's easy, fun or really just anything else, normal type books that go back on the bookshelf at some point, resolved, good, nice books. friendly.
Rating:
Summary: Infinite Jest on whom?
Review: The key is in the title. Infinite Jest. The essence of the book is one of entertainment. Very few can really claim to have never been highly amused at any point during this book. A key vehicle in the book is a movie so entertaining it reduces viewers to drooling zombies, desiring only to waste away watching it. DFW wrote, in ASFTINDA (abbv.), about how American entertainment these days is really only voyeurism. And that's what you have in this book. You're able to watch, up close, the lives of a handful of people. You read it because you want to know what happens. And DFW, eventually, after 1100 pages, denies you this. You read, waiting for closure, looking on, hoping for some climax. A point of summarily ultimate entertainment. But he cuts you off. That, I believe, is the Joke. This book is a social commentary, but the subjects of that commentary aren't found in the book. It's the readers. 80% of the people that have reviewed this gave it either 5 stars or none (maybe one). We are the subjects. Wallace has shown, or rather proved, brilliantly that our entertainment comes from voyeurism. Those who liked the book say they enjoyed the small tidbits of humor, usually embedded within the every-day lives of the characters. Those who hated the book justify their stance most commonly by emphasising the lack of a proper ending. Either way, you liked or hated the book based on the amount of voyeurism you were allowed. Either way, whether you like it (because of what you were able to see) or hate it (because of what you were denied watching), the joke is on us. We played the part of social lab rats. That's the infinite jest.
Rating: 
Summary: on the fence
Review: yeah, the feeling this book has left me with is indecisiveness. sometimes i will just remember some part of the book and start laughing and think what a great book it is. other times i will just be disappointed with it. for one, yes it is long. and i think that for the length it doesnt quite meet the bar. there are times when you are just waiting to get through a section because it seems boring or irrelevent or at least omittable. it seems mr wallace couldnt bring himself to drop some of the lesser important or (ha) entertaining sections. but there are really some really hilarious, not to mention twisted things going on. i cant tell if it was worth it. oh, and the ending is one of the most frustrating i've encountered. i felt a bit cheated. but go for it if you like.
Rating: 
Summary: Joycean!
Review: Attention college students: Just because it's long, doesn't mean it's Joycean. In reading these reviews, I notice that people who made it through this monstrosity tend to give it five-star treatment. For their troubles, are they rewarding themselves by way of praising the book? I got midway through. I think this book owes no small debt to the word processor. The author had a built-in Thesaurus, and he used it to the hilt. And the word processor came in very handy for entering and formatting all those footnotes! Far from being Joycean, this book represents to me the tyranny of the English Department. I'm glad I'm not in school anymore and could abandon it without risking an F.
Rating:
Summary: Saved my life!
Review: I was living in a small, small town in the 'burbs of Osaka, Japan and ther local library had ONE English book. I loved it and Infinafe Jest stoped me from going crazy in a world where I knew no one and couldn't really speak Japanese at all. Just ordered a copy for my best friend and for myself! PLEASE READ THIS BOOK! It's wonderful and full of all sorts of insites...
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