As the first anniversary of David Foster Wallace’s death approaches, many would-be readers still see his Infinite Jest collecting dust on their bookshelves. Wallace’s 1,079-page tome “has become known equally for its sprawling attention to detail, its near impenetrability, and its effectiveness as a doorstop,” writes Joe Coscarelli for Salon. Enter InfiniteSummer.org, envisioned to help its creator deal with Wallace’s death—and finally finish Jest.
Group members follow a syllabus (about 75 pages per week), discuss questions in forums, and read guest essays by, for example, the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy or Wallace’s editor. Jest captures, as Wallace once said, the “real American type of sadness” of a lonely, adrift character—which, Coscarelli writes, “makes the idea of bringing so many people together for a communal reading of the book all that more meaningful.” (More Jay-ZTV stories.)