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  • has anyone read the enormous David Foster Wallace book? I get the impression (from reading his essays) that I wouldn't enjoy it very much, but don't want to dismiss it out of hand.

    Do it, Seeds. Infinite Jest is a phenomenal book. Don Gately and Hal are two of the most original eccentrics in modern fiction. The book looks daunting at first, but once you get stuck in it becomes incredibly addictive - pertinent when you consider the object at the centre of the novel. Half set in a tennis academy, half set in a drug rehabilitation centre, with some epic cameos by a group of wheelchaired assassins, it is that rarest of beasts, a true novel.

    And if its not your thing, don't sweat about it. Put it down and read some of the shorter stuff first.

    Infinite Jest? I read about half of it. Not a fan. Some of his short stories are ok.

    Some of his stories are OK?

    Jesus fucking Christ. You are talking about one of the finest writers of the 20th Century here. I don't normally get precious on the forum but this comment vexes me more than most.

    Read Forever Overhead - it's not that long but it might make you feel something, that's if you are capable of any empathy whatsoever. Or just read the opening story in Girl With Curious Hair. It's 2 pages long and will blow your socks off - I challenge you to read it and come back here to just call it O-fucking-K.

    And if his fiction isn't good enough for you then try his journalism. The essay he wrote for Harper's when sent him off on Carribean Cruise ship holidays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) is one of the funniest pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. Or his essay on the work of David Lynch. Or the one about the Las Vegas Porn Star Awards. Or read about his own moral crisis when he visits the Maine Lobster Festival. They're all brilliant.

    Heck, DFW was also a mathematical genius, so if that's your thing then check out Everything and More - his book on the concept of infinity. Wrap your brain around that one.

    I could go on and on.

    He was of the most talented and versatile writers to have lived in our time, and OK is the antithesis of DFW.

    ....and relaaaaax

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