Düsseldorf English book club, Tuesday 27.Oct.2009

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

At this month's meeting we decided that we needed to choose more popular novels to read with more accessible and happy subjects, so that we'd attract more members. So, we have agreed on a novel about substance addiction, child abuse and depression by a publicity-shy author who has recently committed suicide. But it was on "Time" magazine's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 list, the author has won dozens of awards and apparently it's got a bit about tennis and the film industry so it can't be all bad. It's quite long and might have to be ordered and it's holiday season so we're missing the September meeting and next time will be Tuesday 27th Oct.

Here's the amazon review:

Review
'A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything' NEW YORK TIMES 'Wallace is a superb comedian of culture . . . his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight' James Woods, GUARDIAN 'He induces the kind of laughter which, when read in bed with a sleeping partner, wakes said sleeping partner up . . . He's damn good' Nicholas Lezard, GUARDIAN 'One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Funny, smart and perceptively written.' OBSERVER REVIEW 'Hugely ambitious... There are scenes of gruesome hilarity and some of genuine tragedy... The most relevant portrayal of American culture to appear in recent years, INFINITE JEST is fascinating, ridiculous and excrutiating.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY '[A] remarkable satire on American entertainment and addiction... the book's mixture of maniacal inventiveness and comic brio gradually becomes quite an addiction itself... Foster Wallace has already won comparison with post-modern giants like Pynchon and Gaddis- he has even been tagged "the slacker's Proust"- but I think we can say, in hope as much as in praise that INFINITE JEST is a one-off.' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Product Description
Somewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at the nearby Enfield Tennis Academy are ensnared in the search for the master copy of INFINITE JEST, a movie said to be so dangerously entertaining its viewers become entranced and expire in a state of catatonic bliss ...'Wallace's exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight, and he has deep things to say about the hollowness of contemporary American pleasure ...sentences and whole pages are marvels of cosmic concentration ...Wallace is a superb comedian of culture' James Wood, GUARDIAN

About the Author
David Foster Wallace is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Award for Fiction, the Paris Review's Aga Kahn Prize and John Train Prize for Humour, and the O. Henry Award. He died in 2008.

You literally made me laugh out loud! BTW, you've got 27 *August* in the subject line...

Ta. but I had it right the first time.


Title edit history:
21.Aug.2009 - 17:06:35
fuzzyhb Düsseldorf English book club, Tuesday 27.Oct.2009
Reading 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace
19.Aug.2009 - 12:22:15
Editor Bob Düsseldorf English book club, Tuesday 27.Aug.2009
Reading 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace
19.Aug.2009 - 12:15:59
fuzzyhb Düsseldorf English book club
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Tuesday 27th

has anyone started reading this yet?

Hey Claire. Just started it a few days ago (we ordered it straight away, but we only just got it )

Bumpety-bump. I've finished a chapter and then it got hidden under a pile of cookbooks and things on the kitchen table. I'm sure I'll get through the rest of it by Tuesday week.

Venue still to be decided.

Hello,

We have been discussing a location for this month's meeting. I have had a couple of mails from new people who were interested in maybe joining us, and I just wondered how many new people we are likely to get this time. New people are very welcome, you don't have to have read this book, you can just come along and see what we're like. So, if anyone new is thinking of joining us this month, will you please put a post on here, so we have an idea of numbers.

Thanks

Hello,

Work permitting, I'd really like to come along. I only found a copy of the book yesterday, but we have that extra hour today so I'm sure I'll get through at least ten pages before Tuesday.

I suggest we go for the same time and location as last time. meet at 7pm in g:us on Moltkestr 120 because a) it's nice and it's quiet enough to hear each other and c) it's fairly close to where all the regular members live. (although I'm guessing Sue and Rich will be unable to come this time?)

closest S-bahn is Zoo, closes tram stop is Tußmannstr (literally right outside)

We'd really like to have some new members, even if you haven't read the book, come along and see if you fancy joining us in reading the next book we all choose.

I'm actually still fit and healthy (touch wood); I'll just be late because of my screwed up priorities

I'll be there.