Perhaps I should do a posting every now and then on ‘Books to Avoid’. Quite often the reviews by other bloggers send me rushing down the road to the library to see if it’s on their shelves. Equally some reviews make me get my mental notebook out and tick the ‘avoid like the plague’ column. One such book seems to be “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace. It’s 981 pages (plus 100 of end-notes) mean it is shorter than War and Peace but the fact that it is set in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment (2009 or thereabouts to you and I) gives a clue to its style and nature.
The only problem with avoiding books based on other people’s assessment is that tastes vary so much. One reviewer, for example, couldn’t get into “The Time Traveller’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger whereas I absolutely loved it.
But positive reviews of “Infinite Jest” seem pretty hard to come by...
Quotes
1 year ago
Four pages of the American edition are reserved for positive reviews. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a negative review from someone who took the time to read it.
ReplyDeleteThanks zk - just proves the point in my second paragraph! Still not sure I'm going to try it though...
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