Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Infinite Jest is profound, challenging, hilarious, scary, beautifully digressive, a powerful blend of genres and ideas. Somehow, along with the tennis and the AA and the professional football and the pharmacopeia and the Eschaton and the science fiction and the looping narratives, this is also a compelling thriller, though if you’re looking for a classic thriller resolution you’ll be disappointed… I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh, and wince, and recoil so much – pure physical response from words on a page. Wallace has written an anthology of America, right and wrong, and of all the ways we try and fail to live and be whole.

That said, IJ is a serious undertaking, and might not be for everyone – it’s long, and winding, and doesn’t pull many punches. This book can transform your vision of the world, but part of that power comes from the fact that it’s so big its gravitational field actually bends light.