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ciarafor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Taking away another star for the number of times I grew exasperatedly bored with long passages about the individual hallway patterns and structures of buildings and longest backstories that sometimes were crucial and other times entirely useless. And for the way this book made me want to crawl out of my skin way more than once.
But I can’t justify taking away any other stars, because outside of those two (pretty significant) things, this book was one of the most intelligent, intriguing, and powerful books I’ve read. I will not subscribe to the Myth of Male Genius or allow DFW to be venerated as faultless, but this work really is something you kind of have to put a capital G on the Genius for. The entire book, DFW tells you exactly what he’s doing and going to do, and when he does it, it’s still somehow earth shattering. It’s bold, it’s boundary-breaking, and it has left me reeling on more than one occasion. I personally believe the point of literature is to make you feel things, experience things you haven’t had the occasion to touch or think on, to live through someone else’s creation. At its core, Infinite Jest will make you feel, and think, and live through all kinds of stuff you didn’t want to, and may be better off or far worse off for. Read at your own risk - but if you want to experience something unlike anything else you have thus far, and you can stomach what comes with it, Infinite Jest might just be worth picking up.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
asililydying's review against another edition
Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Murder, and Sexual harassment
goroshyna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Якби в мене була необмежена кількість часу, я би точно перечитала «Нескінченний жарт», щоби ще раз зв'язати все докупи. Для мене все почало складатися в один сюжет десь на останній третині книжки, а до цього персонажі хіба що з'являлися на тлі окремих ліній оповідання. Було очевидно, що автор сам професійно займався тенісом і, напевно, мав досвід відвідування зустрічей анонімних наркоманів. Тема залежності та тверезості відіграє одну з провідних ролей роману.
Ще одним мотивом твору виступає мистецтво, а саме його вплив і підходи до його реалізації. Один з героїв «Нескінченного жарту» знімає незалежні фільми, які запрошують аудиторію до метааналізу безпосередньо під час сеансу. Читаючи розділи про режисера, я замислювалася, чи автор також хоче вирвати читачів із занурення в події роману та змусити їх усвідомити, що вони читають текст, написаний людиною в реальному світі.
Я помітила спроби автора коментувати політику, але далі, ніж прирівняти політиків і дітей, які грають у ядерну кризу, він не пішов.
Якщо двома словами, то це дуже довга метамодерністська книжка, яку можна читати, а можна не читати. Вона точно наштовхнула мене на цікаві роздуми.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Death of parent
nickds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Deadnaming
surdiablo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So DFW was undoubtedly a genius and an extremely talented writer, no argument there. This sprawling interconnected narrative takes a lot of chops to pull off and that's what impressed me the most, along with his realistic depiction of addiction and mental health crises. Various characters with their distinct voices develop throughout the scrambled timeline of the story. It explores several themes and concepts like what it means to be truly free, the advancement of technology, the influence of media in society, and so forth, which for the most part was well-executed. The way he switches between different POVs was impressive and occasionally jarring, alongside his footnotes within footnotes, which ranged from significant to superfluous. The chapters featuring Marathe and Steeply were among my favorite sections since they involved lots of philosophical musings, and the AFR plot in general was fantastic. The humor, often dark, got plenty of random chuckles from me at the most unexpected times. Several passages left me awestruck thinking to myself "Damn, this man can write!". Regardless of the cons I am about to list, I can see why this book is revered and there are moments of brilliance I simply can't deny the existence of.
But I'm afraid that's where my praises end. Infinite Jest, despite all its merits, is ultimately too bloated and self-indulgent for me to fully appreciate. A lot of people seem to mention how the experience felt rewarding to piece info together from footnotes and random tangents, but I found it to be a chore for the majority. ( I don't care much about drugs or tennis, so that was always gonna be difficult tbh, so your mileage may vary ). There were moments it worked well, the filmography list for example, but all the pharmaceutical descriptions and meandering did nothing to serve the overall narrative or pacing. ( No, I don't care if switching back and forth between footnotes emulates a tennis match! ). The difficulty felt purely artificial, things were often complicated just for the sake of it, and almost half of the novel is DFW just flexing himself, entire sections existing solely to showcase his intellectual prowess which I found pretentious. Now I'm fine with the occasional self-indulgent writing but in this case, it became annoying after the first half. While being realistic, there's plenty of repetition regarding addiction which did not need to be hammered down as it was. I did enjoy the overall story, although it would have been preferable to get a more conclusive ending for other characters besides Hal and Gately but I know that's moot since it's a post-modern book. Many might disagree, but I concur with the sentiment that there's an amazing 500 to 700-page book in there somewhere. Ultimately, it was a journey with peaks of brilliance and valleys of frustration. I do not regret reading it, it just didn't blow me away like I thought it would. I'm not the biggest fan of post-modernism anyway so if the themes strike your fancy, certainly go ahead. The experience is certainly one of a kind, for better or worse.
P.S. It didn't bother me, but there's plenty of disturbing imagery as well if you are planning to read it but wasn't aware. Enough to make me add this at the end. 😄
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence
greenrequiem's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Pedophilia, and Violence
svspirium's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence
rue_knee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
viksquires's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
raegan's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Excrement, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence