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The Unbearable Blogness of Steven
Thoughts on culture and current events
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Saturday, February 17, 2007
The Best Book of the Last 20 Years 

The Best Book of the Last 20 Years...

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

I've often heard the book described as "difficult." Hogwash! It's long. It's complex. It's challenging. It covers lots of weighty subject matter. But it's also funny, intriguing, stimulating, and touching.

Yes, I really meant "touching." For all the talk about how Wallace plays games with the reader, sets up many unanswered questions, leads you through a narrative wild goose chase (all those things ARE true), the book is also stuffed with fully-drawn characters who really do hold our interest, and, yes, capture our concern. The book is drawn with lots of post-modern effects, but the story is driven by Wallace's humanism.

It's not just a bunch of showing off. It's a great story, told in a masterfully experimental way.

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posted by Steven Harris @  10:09 AM Comments-[ comments.]

Comments:
Great work.
 
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