The book that saved you: Infinite Jest

Matthew Singer on DFW, COVID, and becoming a writer

In this occasional series, “The Book That Saved You,” I ask friends and family to share a book that saved them—perhaps not literally, but it marked a turning point in their lives. May they inspire a new addition to your “to-be-read” pile or invoke a deep memory of your experience with a book.

The reader: Matt Singer

The book: Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

What's it about: Read the jacket copy here, or here's Matt’s description, which I love:

"It's a 1000-page book. Sprawling. It centers on a troubled family, siblings, brothers—high achieving—with a bunch of darkness to it. The plot is…a whole bunch of things are happening. There's a rehab story. There's an inspector/private eye figure. There's a group of French Canadian wheelchair assassins. They all loosely connect.”

What was happening while you read it?

"It was 2020. This book had been sitting on my shelf for years. It was recommended by a dear friend who grew up in Central Illinois, which is a theme that keeps coming up in DFW's work. I'd read another of his novels, Pale King, but the style grated on me. I felt like I should read Infinite Jest but it just sat there on my bookshelf, staring at me, judging me for not reading it.

And then came the pandemic.

Everyone who lived through that time knows how difficult it was. On top of keeping up appearances for my two young kids and the expanded responsibilities of working from home while keeping everyone safe, all of the things I did for pleasure went away overnight, things like being out and about in the city, being with community.

For some reason I looked at the 1000-page book staring at me from the bookshelf and thought, ‘This is probably the time.’”

What changed while you were reading it?

“For those who haven't read DFW, he goes on tangents and follows them as far as he can go. Honestly, I was just so happy to inhabit his brain. I don't pretend to understand everything in the book, but I had this weird feeling we were connecting through time and space.

This is truly one of the joys of fiction. it requires a recipient and a writer. You're creating this image together. This is what I did for many months.”

How does it affect you now?

“I draw a straight line from the experience of reading that book to when the pandemic lifted and there was a vaccine in my arm. That's when I decided to sign up for a writing class. It activated something in me. I ended up writing a novel and reading everything of his.

I wouldn't say it ‘saved’ my life, but it changed the course of my life. It was the answer to a question. Now I can call myself a writer.”