I buy a lot of long books. Short books don’t give me that warm feeling when I finish them. The last four books that I read are “The corrections”, “Cryptonomicon”, “White teeth”, and “The truth about the Harry Quebert Affair”. “White teeth” is the shortest of the lot (541 pages). This post is an ode to one such long book.

I got “Infinite jest” as a gift. I started reading it and failed to move past the first two pages. After many such failed attempts, I have finally hit it off. Right now, I am on the 270th page. IJ is unlike any other book I have read before. Let me try a poker analogy (I am learning poker. Still very bad at it). All the other books that I read are a two-pair or a three-of-a-kind. IJ is like the royal flush. Strike it out, that’s too much. IJ is a flush.

There are a lot of things about IJ which make it a difficult read. It has footnotes (lots and lots). You can’t ignore them, because they sometimes contain important plot points. The narrative is non-linear. The years have cryptic names like “The year of Depend Adult Undergarment” etc. As a result, we don’t know which year comes first. Wait, We do get to know the order. Only It’s written on the 231st page. Till then, you will have to make do with clues present in each chapter. Some sentences are a page long with sub-clauses all over the place. Despite all this, It’s a pleasure to read IJ. There are such minute and intense observations about human psyche that It almost feels impossible to write a book of such length.

The main theme of IJ is addiction. Every chapter offers insights into the psyche of addicts. This summary of the book may seem depressing, but It’s not a dull book. It defies description. Still I will do my best. From what I have read till now ( a quarter of the book), Hal Incandenza is the main protagonist. He attends a tennis academy. He is very ambitious and always eager to deliver “the goods” expected of him. His father commits suicide by sticking his head into an oven. His brother is in NFL. His another elder brother, Mario, is severely deformed. Mario is always cheerful. He is the most likable character of the lot.

At 270 pages, I still have no inkling of how the plot pans out. There are a lot of characters and it’s difficult to keep track of everything. Each chapter is an anecdote. If all this comes together in the end, That will be something. This book will surely be a royal flush then.

This book is not an easy read. You can’t read this book and be doing something else in the background. This book demands and deserves your full attention. Read this book to appreciate the genius of David Foster Wallace.