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The part where the midget witch doctor eats the baby is gut wrenching.

The Third Man wrote:I'm in the habit of mostly reading huge books. Not sure what draws me to them, but my last three reads have been second reads of Infinite Jest (1100 pages), Against the Day (same), and Mason & Dixon (800), and I have The Instructions (1000), and The Recognitions (900) on deck.

Have you read Roberto Bolano's 2666? I think you'd enjoy it. It's crazy intense. I'm still kinda haunted by it in fact.

MrSaigon wrote:I guess it just depends how crunchy it is. I tried to do Infinite Jest twice. It's not the length of the book so much as the length of the paragraphs that really got me. Plus extensive endnotes. That books a lot of work. Maybe I'll try again some time. I'm sure it's rewarding.

Otoh, 19th Century serials are sometimes super long but also breezy.

Infinite Jest is the best novel of the past 30ish years. Completing it is incredibly rewarding, not just because of the amount of effort it takes, but also when you understand the satire of American culture that Wallace created. He foresaw the role of the internet in our culture, and now we basically live in the world of IJ.

The Pale King is also pretty spectacular, but also challenging. It's basically about the structure of the IRS and tax code. But it's also about beauty and meaningless in middle american lives. It's a tragedy but also perhaps not surprising, in retrospect, that DFW committed suicide while writing this book.

heyzeus wrote:

The Third Man wrote:I'm in the habit of mostly reading huge books. Not sure what draws me to them, but my last three reads have been second reads of Infinite Jest (1100 pages), Against the Day (same), and Mason & Dixon (800), and I have The Instructions (1000), and The Recognitions (900) on deck.

Have you read Roberto Bolano's 2666? I think you'd enjoy it. It's crazy intense. I'm still kinda haunted by it in fact.

I read like the first 850 pages and put it down, go figure. Need to start it back over.

heyzeus wrote:Infinite Jest is the best novel of the past 30ish years.

Can't help but wonder if this was a very carefully selected endpoint, since Blood Meridian came out 31 years ago.

The Third Man wrote:

heyzeus wrote:Infinite Jest is the best novel of the past 30ish years.

Can't help but wonder if this was a very carefully selected endpoint, since Blood Meridian came out 31 years ago.

Tough to compare the two, BM feels like the work of a different era.

The Third Man wrote:

heyzeus wrote:Infinite Jest is the best novel of the past 30ish years.

Can't help but wonder if this was a very carefully selected endpoint, since Blood Meridian came out 31 years ago.

I'd have to agree, I think it'll be remembered in 300 years as fondly as "Tristram Shandy" is today. It's an extraordinary thing, and I love it.

I love both, FWIW. Each has a place in my top ten which more effectively conveys the fact that I'm a twentysomething white dude than any other fact about me.

The Third Man wrote:I love both, FWIW. Each has a place in my top ten which more effectively conveys the fact that I'm a twentysomething white dude than any other fact about me.

I occasionally look at novel descriptions which seem very "worthy", about troubled times in our history, and from the perspective of oppressed peoples. I almost always go "is it not enough that I'm aware those times were bad and am on the side of the oppressed? Is it cool if I just read some science fiction?"