SOURCE: A review of Infinite Jest, in Nation, Vol. 262, No. 9, March 4, 1996, pp. 27-9.

In the review below, Perlstein calls Infinite Jest "a daring and brilliant exercise" but one that ultimately fails because the novelist's compulsion overwhelms his art.

Jazz apocrypha has it that Miles Davis once asked his sideman John Coltrane to play shorter solos. Coltrane, who could never reach a satisfying conclusion, asked how, and Miles, ever laconic, replied: "Take the horn out of your mouth." Coltrane never did take Miles's advice. Until he explored every harmonic implication of every chord, or couldn't physically play anymore, Coltrane's horn stayed in his mouth. For a while, this made for a gorgeous noise indeed. But soon enough Coltrane was stretching his fantasies into half-hour, then hourlong clots of solipsistic caterwauling. His longtime sidemen left him; his last albums became unlistenable. Although he aimed at transcendence, his compulsion overwhelmed his...