Content wise I would give this book three stars. There is some good analysis in the essays, but it is far from a "how to" guide. The discussion on the cartridge was probably the most valuable. I'm most surprised the wraith wasn't discussed in detail.

The chronology in the end bumped up my score because it is especially helpful.

some of their connections and theories seem a little bit out there but it gives some fun stuff to think about. the back and forth explanation of the general "plot" is way confusing.

This mentions how Enfield, MA where the book is set, was flooded to make a reservoir. What I didn't know was that all of the bodies in the Enfield cemetery were disinterred and moved to a new location. It seems like it has a parallel with the Yorick scene from Hamlet and some mentions of dug-up graves in IJ.

I'm trying to go through two thousand+ page novels this year, so the Infinite Jest re-read will have to wait. But for a quick brush up on my IJ, this would do.
(do I have to mention it? DO NOT pick this up if you haven't read IJ)

The "guide" part of the book consists of a handy timeline, with the three main storylines laid out (as far as they'd allow it). The surrounding analysis and criticism is interesting albeit incipient (compared to what I'm used to hearing on the Great Concavity podcast)---the main thesis being a "centrifugal" reading of Wallace, one that reaches out to external references instead of looking inward. If anything, this resulted in a bunch of additions to my to-read pile.

A favourite technique of Burn's for making external connections seems to be numerology. This, while providing some good insights (such as the parallel between Heracles and his twelve tasks, and Gately's twelve steps in AA), also goes overboard---most notably in the digression on Wallace's supposed "invocation of the genome" in this short story. Burn's contextualisation of the story was rich enough without having to invent genomic invocations. And no, I won't explain his reasoning here; I *dare* you to discover it yourself, hah.

yeah, so i picked this one up before beginning Infinite Jest...not quite a cliff notes, though it does tell the reader much about Wallace's story, a bit of biography, and at least one snippet within tells of a court case...

been reading Infinite Jest, too...finished Koontz's latest...so...there's also some leads w/i to other reads, other possibilities....William Gaddis, Robert Musil, James Joyce...

A helpful overview of Infinite Jest with a little background on David Foster Wallace. A good place to start and decide if you really want to take the plunge into the novel.

This mentions how Enfield, MA where the book is set, was flooded to make a reservoir. What I didn't know was that all of the bodies in the Enfield cemetery were disinterred and moved to a new location. It seems like it has a parallel with the Yorick scene from Hamlet and some mentions of dug-up graves in IJ.

I'm working on a paper on DFW and so I thought I should take a look at a bit of standard scholarship. I was bracing myself for the sort of assembly line style thinking-other-men's-thoughts-and-turning-them-to-dust that anything subtitled "A Reader's Guide" leads one to expect, but this was actually quite good.

Burn is excellent at showing some of the structural intricacy of IJ, and how the annular patterns of the book connect to the exploration of the disintegration of the post-modern self and Wallace's aim of trying to escape the post-modern trap and point toward a way of being "an f-ing human being."

Burn even realizes that IJ is a "basically... religious book" (p. 60), though he doesn't explore the implications of that very much.

Mervifully short. Excellent addition to HLBC lectures, enough read.

Numerology; underlying mythical symbolism; post-postmodernism (which would turn EUP into a pre-post-postmodernist essay, I guess [?] - the possibilities are endless).

For fuck's sake.

(but IJ's chronology at the end deserves a not completely half-hearted 'atta boy'. Let's drink to that.)

That David Foster Wallace was a brilliant young writer.
The main character of the book is a tennis and lexical
prodigy, who is also addicted to marijuana rosin. David Foster Wallace committed suicide last year, and it's too easy for a reader to assume that this novel and
the main character are autobiographical.

This is the reading guide. I have read from this series before, so I sort of know how it's sorted:
Talking about the author, about the book, book's reception, books performance, further reading, discussion questions, (here the unique chronology) and the bibliography.
(I only looked at the chronology part before I finished the book: I wanted to form my own observations and opinions about the book before this guide's.)

What I gained (more) from reading this book:
- the role of tv in this books (not of the Internet or phones of today, but since the book came out in 1996 it's understadable)
- the literature influences for Wallace and appearing this book (like Abbott's "Flatland", Frazer's "Golden Bough", and books by Gaddis, Pynchon, etc.)
- the chronology was built from the mention of Language Riots in notes section
- how the stories of the characters, the political polot and the race to get the film knot together, influence each other
- the scarce hints of what happened during the 'missing year' (between Hal's hospitalisation after DMZ and his visit to the university in Arizona at the start of the book. (One hint is him and Don Gately digging up Hal's father's head from his grave for some reason; they have met at the hospital, where Don was recovering from being shot).
- one major theme is the loss of identity, especially in Hal's case. His was pretty weak already in childhood, but being at the ETA (which values skills over identity in its teaching), being 'interpreted' by others, the drugs and all leave him the shell he is at the book's start - fine while playing tennis, a freaky-acting shell elsewhere, giving the university men the howling fantods and resulting in a hospital visit, again.
- the hints of Greek mythology (not just in what the reaction to the film is for the watchers)
- the theme of spiritual hollowness of life without belief. Wallace has said: "the stuff that's truly interesting about religion is inarticulable" (something that I've found recently in, for example, Richard Rohr's "Things Hidden" book).
- there's plenty of subtle meanings to be found in certain dates (including apocalyptic; the year the chronology ends is said to be the 'last year like this'... there's a slight sends of apocalypse looming near there)

In reaction to the book: there was fear of the size (when you have also to write a review and theres this book that's 1000+ pages *lol*), some reviewers missed or got wrong some details, and couldn't follow well. Of course this book got good and bad reviewers. It's clear even in the just reviewing that a good angle-approach is rather essential.

The book's performance: it got rather soon to the 'recognised as great' position (essays, longer writings and praises from other authors, even mentions in others' books).

Further reading means a bunch of internet links, valid when the guide was printed. The questions at the end are not easy, and are like 'write a long answer', non-book club sort. But interesting.

Now I want to read some Gaddis, Pynchon and the "Flatland" book. XD

But yes, pretty essential companion, that's what this book *is*. ;)