Infinite Jest:
the reading club

The End“And when he came back to, he was flat on his back on the beach in the freezing sand, and it was raining out of a low sky, and the tide was way out.” There is a definite plus to reading a book that was published thirty years ago – the internet is an abundance...

Week TwelveHal tries to go to an NA meeting, Gately meets a wraith, we don’t know what happened to Kate, and Ortho Stice is stuck.Recap & Reflections November 19 (?) – Kevin Bane nurtures his Inner InfantFollowing the meeting schedule booklet Johnette has given...

Week ElevenAs the reading winds up (only two weeks left!) I am appreciative (?) of how Wallace has left a few major details to the last quarter of the book: this week we finally get the story of Joelle’s disfigurement and the details of Marathe’s wife. As well,...

Week TenNow that we are very significantly past the half way mark, are you feeling speculation about where the novel is taking us? What our final destination will be? We know Hal ends up non-verbal, trapped inside his own, unreliable body, but where will the AFR’s...

Week NineIn which Lenz’s nightly assaults catch up to him, Mario is missing Madame Psychosis, Orin has been entrapped by the “Swiss hand model,” the WYYY engineer gets scooped up by the AFR, objects are moving around E.T.A, Steeply’s father obsessed over M*A*S*H and...

Week EightBefore we get into the horror that is Randy Lenz, we meet up with Roy Tony once more, wait out the repercussions of Eschaton in the HrH’s very blue waiting room, the morning sun is about to rise on Marathe and Steeply, Pemulis has some very important info...

Week SevenEach week while I prep for this recap, I grab the pages I’ve just read between my fingers and am always amazed at what a small sliver of the book the week’s reading represented, and within that 1/4 – 1/2 inch of paper how many stories were covered. This...

Week SixIn this week’s pages we attend a dark and brutal AA meeting, learn about the birth of O.N.A.N through Mario’s Interdependence Day film screening, follow the growth of Inter-Lace, and talk pea soup with Marathe and Steeply.Recap We go out to a White Flag AA...

Week FiveWherein we traverse 47 endnotes (!), get some perspective on Orin and JvD’s relationship, shudder in a bathroom stall with Poor Tony Krause, brush up on our Quebecois separatist history, understand the extent of Mario’s disfigurements, check in with Marathe...

Week FourRecap DMZ is seriously dangerous stuff, but with bellbottoms!Pemulis has secured a fairly large amount of DMZ, in tablet form, from Antitoi Entertainment, run by a couple of Nucks (*any Canadians consider that a slur? I know I don’t). Pemulis is (thankfully)...

Week ThreeI read this section so quickly, as it just filled me with absolute glee. A few of my favourite bits are in this week's reading and the pace is fast and furious.  We are also intoduced to Wallace's increasingly-agitated use of ALLCAPS HEADLINES to really add...

Week TwoMore than a few people I have spoken to put IJ down around 100 pages in. So we have just passed a common attrition mark. Congratulations! And ya know, it makes some sense - there's a lot going on. We have our first giant endnote (the filmography, and...

Week OneWelcome to the beginning of our Infinite Jest reading club, and the first of thirteen blog posts dedicated to recaps. reflections, and reactions to what we've just read: amanuensis festschrift scopophilical These words are all such delicious morsels. Wallace...