I just can't bring myself to purchase/read this piece of shit book

There are no memes about it being hard.
It's just long and has lots of footnotes and sentences with multiple clauses.
Despite all this, it's a very fun book.

It has lots of negative reviews everywhere I look, yet here everybody is praising this book. Is this some sort of prank?

>It has lots of negative reviews everywhere I look
Like?

the vocabulary and syntax are very simple, english is my second language and i had no problem understanding it, whereas for things like pynchon i might have to reread a sentence multiple times to figure out what the hell he is saying
the narrative is nonlinear, there are a lot of endnotes, and for the first couple hundred pages he just keeps introducing new seemingly unrelated characters, but dfw makes a distinguishable effort to keep things entertaining and light-hearted and i think it flows fairly well

then dont

let me tell you something you won't believe (and you really won't believe because the very thing I'm about to say might make you change your entire viewpoint (which you won't do because that would take out much of your energy (which you can't expend that much ever since you entered your depressive stance (yeah I know you are depressed (don't ask me how, let's just say I am very good at knowing what the personality of someone who posts here is (that's because I was here a long time now and I am very used (okay I admit that I am just projecting and that's me who is actually depressed but that doesn't mean I can't use Theory of Mind (TM) to figure out you're probably in the same boat (which I conclude by the very fact you don't want to read this masterpiece of literature which would make you realize what you're missing in life (if you ever would read it, that is (which you won't because of the aforementioned points that I just gave in the brackets (which of there are many)))))))))) and viewpoints are essential to your core of being) now what I wanted to say was

im not him but infinite jest is really intimidating, so i just read brief interviews with hideous men and i adored that. now i’m reading oblivion which i similarly adore. my advice is to start with his short stories and if they grip you you’ll feel compelled to explore his longer work.

>he doesn't have an unread copy of infinite jest in his bookshelf

Thanks for the response. I'm not so much intimidated by the length, but the structure of the prose. I'll definitely try out his short stories though. I like short stories in general.

As with most writers I always feel as if I'm losing out lest I read the bibliography in order, but I'd really only suggest you read the Broom of the System if you really, really like DFW's writing or maybe if you have an interest in Wittgenstein. In terms of short stories, I do feel like it's better to read IJ before his post-9/11 stuff (while 9/11 fucked him up it did wonders for his writing). And don't take that guys short story recommendation and read stuff from Girl with Curious Hair first. Much of it isn't good enough to encourage you to read IJ and won't give you a good impression of his work. Finally, IJ's structure is simple enough to get your head around. Try and work out where things are going in your head, take notes if you want.

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I had the same sentiments towards the book OP, but I stumbled upon a used copy for five dollars in a Cape Cod book store last week. Like another user said earlier in this thread, he throws a lot of characters and weird sentence syntaxes at you, but it becomes absolutely addicting after the first fifty pages. If you are familiar with metro Boston and greater Boston like me, it’ll add another layer of interest to what you’re reading.

ok