Be honest: David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is one of those books that people lie about reading, like James Joyce’s Ulysses. But Wallace, who suffered from clinical depression, also had many passionate fans who were devastated when the author committed suicide on September 15, 2008. In fact, many of them spent the summer as part of a challenge (infinitesummer.org), reading the novel; 1,000 pages over 92 days, which equals 75 whopping pages a week. To mark the first anniversary of his death, the Spring Garden Library is hosting a talk about Wallace, by Dalhousie prof David McNeil (Tues, 7pm, free), who will “discuss the tradition of writing as therapy for depression and examine how Wallace portrayed depression and suicide in his work.” And even though the reading challenge ends on September 22, it’s never too late to pick up this American classic.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.