A Smattering of Thoughts

{the following was originally posted for my book club blog, Radical Period Queer Period. on 5/3/09.}
After a few months and some arduous reading, I finally finished Infinite Jest this afternoon. This left me with a handful of thoughts, ranging from good to bad and ecstatic to downright sluggish. The good news is that I'm done with it. 981 pages of main story and close to 300 pages of 9pt font "Notes and Errata." It's a workout to even carry around. Of course, the bad news is that I'm done with it...upon second reading, I'm convinced that David Foster Wallace is one of the most gifted writers I've ever read with an ability to craft multiple stories and inject raw observations beyond any author I've experienced.

Good news? I bought the first two books on the list today. Bad news...it cost 30 bucks. Good news is that that's only the cost of three drinks on a Friday night. Not to mention the fact that both of them combined feel like a magazine in my hand compared to the last read.

I've included photos of the covers, in case anyone is interested in identical texts. Though, my assumption here is that I'm the late purchaser and everyone else is halfway done with the book already. The Ishiguro is a Vintage International edition and the Burroughs book is Picador. An interesting site here comparing various editions of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land for anyone intrigued.

It's interesting the relief I feel at finishing one book and trepidation apparent in starting another. Not just now, but in general. Being so wrapped up in one author's vision, committed to his or her story then abruptly changing to a new voice, texture and pattern of ideas. But I think the current shift scares me a bit more. Infinite Jest isn't a book, it's an experience that wraps the reader in layer upon layer of narrative and philosophy, constantly prodding for the question of, "What more?" I picked it up to re-read following the sad news that Wallace had committed suicide by hanging himself. Now as I close it, I feel a bit like I'm leaving a friendly voice in those pages, abandoning the tale back to the silence of new fiction that perpetuates itself in his death. Incredibly verbose and introspective, Wallace has a style that is in contrast to any I've read. Opening Never Let Me Go, I find the excitement of a new book and a new book club, while also feeling the fear that it will in some way be a fictional let down. I don't share these as positive or negative, merely my thoughts on a new text.

And with that, I embark on Ishiguro, for better or worse.

John 21:25 "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." - The Bible

John 21:25 "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." - The Bible

No wonder people never agree on religion!