DFW's: The Brothers Incandenza

[hschulze at closerlook.com]

I agree.  It's a shame there is so much Wallace-bashing going on.  Infinite
Jest is far and away better than 90+% of the books out there right now, and
certainly in my top ten for the last year.  He got right to the heart of
the matter of addiction and the cry for a balm for the psychic wounds of
every character involved.  (In that sense, it reminded me very much of
Gaddis' JR.)

No, I didn't particularly care for certain bits -- such as the wheelchair
terrorists.  Not for PC reasons, it seemed to be too cute a contrivance
when so much rang powerfully true.  (Here I'm reminded of Pynchon's
comments about his own attempts to be "literary" in Slow Learner.)  But
given a book of the size and brilliance of Infinite Jest, the chances are
pretty good, I may have missed some important aspect that kept those bits
from coming together.

Certain scenes (such as Hal's conversation with the psychologist to whom he
recites exactly what the therapist WANTS to hear (how much are therapists
addicted to their own "talking cure"?)) are as memorable and touching as
moments of Slothrop wandering through Europe in Gravity's Rainbow.  Compare
the tennis court simulation game of nuclear destruction that the teens
dream up with the convoluted drinking game rules in GR.

Beyond that, some sentences in that book turned me green with envy at the
strength of his writing.

Perhaps certain critics are feeling a bit of envy too at the age of this
writer -- and the amount of promotional force the publisher put behind the
book.  (Far better for readers to pat themselves on the back for having
"discovered" a sleeper like Catch-22, than for a publisher to hold up a
truly good book and for us to believe it ain't just hype.)