Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

5 reviews

blueisthenewpink's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

 

Wow, was this book frustrating! Including the end. A thousand pages of parallel, sometimes intersecting stories, endnotes¹, characters speaking in nonstandard English, some others using a superstandard variant, with unnecessary grammar nazism, all extremely dysfunctional, with some truly horrific stories in their lives, some absolutely abysmal events the reader has to witness irl. 

Often, it was like wading through mud, waist-high. It is not a story, it is life. With all its complexity, revolting scenes and quite depressing hopelessness. Also, it was very engaging, I was deeply interested in these stories, most of them at least, still, it was too dense to ever read it quickly². 

Following the timeline with all these crazy names for the years proved to be so challenging that I simply gave up trying to understand the order of events after a while. It all started to converge towards the end though and

despite not getting any closure,

the interconnectedness of these fates became clear. 

I loved the sense of humour though. Things like “you have to take what Orin says in a fairly high-sodium way” or “Not exactly the swiftest ship in Her Majesty’s fleet in terms of like upstairs” and “the parents apparently being not exactly the two brightest bulbs in the great U.S. parental light-show” not to mention “Pemulis invites Ingersoll to do something anatomically impossible.”. 

And the vast vocabulary. 

When narrating from one's point of view, even though it's 3rd person singular, the text becomes like that person's thoughts, with mistakes, with forgotten words. Not to the level of unreadability, but the pace, the choice of words tell that we are inside of this character's head now (often not the happiest places). 

Most of the text is this way, but towards the end, there is a sudden switch to 1st person singular at times, making it much more personal even though we heard all this character’s thoughts in the 3rd person before. It turns out to be a completely different experience, more involved to the extent that it feels like being trapped in this character’s situation. 

It hasn’t always been easy to read, but I grew to care about most of the characters and I definitely salute the accomplishment. I haven’t enjoyed it as much as Joyce’s Ulysses, but I appreciate it just the same. 

 ¹ one hundred pagesª of them (b)
 ªlike this
 (b) 388 altogether*
 * one of them 8 pages long with 6 sub-endnotes, another 5 pages long
 
 ²with the only exception of

Don Gately's standing up for the tenants of Ennet House, and the parts after, when I really wanted to see whether he would be okay. And of course I never quite knew. Or I did. But not explicitly.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Medical trauma

pjn345's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Physical abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death

ciarafor's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• 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

I’m taking away a star for the sheer amount of racism and sexism in this book - every single female character is objectified so extremely this book can be difficult to read as a woman sometimes.

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

lizburny's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It is a book that pulls you in and pushes you away. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

rue_knee's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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