Reading the First 100 pages of IJ

As I've been re-reading the first 100+ pages of Infinite Jest I have been amazed at what a different experience reading the novel for the second time is. I have read many books more than once of course, and often I have picked up on little things I missed the first time around, or appreciated some scene or aspect of a book more on take two, but never have I felt I was seeing things as radically differently, not to mention more clearly, than I do re-reading IJ. The first time I was spending all my time and energy trying to figure out what was going on- why can't anyone understand Hal? Is he psychotic or what? Who are all these different people coming and going with no seeming relation? It wasn't until I was a couple hundred pages in that everything started coming together to form a coherent whole and I could stop trying to get my bearing in the world David Foster Wallace created, and start really appreciating the story and characters and becoming wholly enmesed in Infinite Jest.

When my friend Paul first starting reading IJ last summer at my urging, after reading the first hunderd pages he said he didn't even know what was going on, and on his blog cataloging the novel (which remains sadly unfinished) he quoted Eden M Kennedy saying:

"Each dip into the novel also feels like a completely separate excursion. When I take a break from a conventional novel it’s like pressing pause on a video, with the narrative flow frozen on the screen, awaiting my return. But in reading Infinite Jest I have tended to stop at the chapter divisions, and nearly every chapter of the first 100 pages starts in a new place, with new characters, and often in a new time. It’s akin to reading a collection of short stories, set in a shared universe but with little else in common. I can see why many people–including myself a decade ago–put this novel down and never pick it up again. There is so little connective tissue thus far that the end of each chapter feels like a natural place to stop reading, forever.

And yet, 100 pages in, I sense engrossment on the horizon. With each additional chapter I find myself sinking into the salty tide. It’s probably only a matter of time before I disappear below the waves for good."

So if you're about approaching the end of reading assignment 1, or right in the middle, or even at the beginning, wondering how this is all going to come together and make sense, or simply getting a little frustrated- don't worry! As the threads that the novel sets up in the beginning come together, if your reading experience is anything like mine, you'll be unable to put the novel down.