Improve Your Word Power with David Foster Wallace

So, my New Year's resolution was to finally read Infinite Jest, and it took me about a month. Which makes me even with Dave Eggers, who says it took him the same amount of time, in his introduction.

Of course I also didn't really have that much time to read, or else I would have kicked his ass.

I'm finding it kind of hard to solidfy my opinion about this book. My favorite thing about Mr. Wallace is his piercing observations about human behavior, and clever turns of phrase, which are evident throughout. I like most of the characters and most of the things he's structured the novel around. However sometimes I really get the feeling he's being weird just for the sake of being weird, which is annoying. (Does Quebec Seperatism really need a splinter group of wheelchair assassins? And herds of feral hamsters? Seriously) Also, I have never read a book with less denouement. All you get is to go back to the very first chapter and gain some illumination on what the hell is going on with Hal....pretty much every other character is left frozen in a moment of crisis.

Speaking of Hal, if anyone can explain to me exactly what goes on with the DMZ. I get that he takes it and that explains what happens at the end (and the start) of the book. But I have flipped through many times trying to find WHEN he takes it...it's hard for me to believe that Wallace would not have written that scene...and by hard I mean infuriating. I keep getting the feeling with this book that someone ripped out a whole bunch of pages before I got it. Chris, any help?

Anyway, the one thing I am clear on is that Wallace uses bigger words than pretty much anyone in the world. Halfway through the book I started writing down the ones I needed to look up:

eschatology
teratoid
aphonia (in retrospect this was obvious)
phielyism
amanuensis
micturate
coprolaliac
coruscant
ephebic
obstreperous

This is only a partial list, and I am not often someone who has to look up words....so basically, I'm pretty impressed.