Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: "Infinite Jest" inspires music

We've all heard of books adapted to film and television, but what about music? This story from NPR recently featured "Calamity Song" by the Decemberists, which pays homage to David Foster Wallace's doorstopper-sized 1996 novel Infinite Jest. Band member Colin Meloy explains: "I wrote 'Calamity Song' shortly after I'd finished reading David Foster Wallace's epic Infinite Jest. The book didn't so much inspire the song itself, but Wallace's irreverent and brilliant humor definitely wound its way into the thing." Infinite Jest tells the story of an intelligent but zany dysfunctional family set both in a drug-and-alcohol addicts' halfway house and at a tennis academy. The book follows such themes as heartbreak, philosophy, and advertising, and has amassed a huge number of fans. Author David Foster Wallace died in 2008 at the age of 46 according to this obituary from the New York Times; however, his unfinished work of autobiographical fiction, The Pale King, has just recently been published and is available for you to check out from your Community Library.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

"Infinite Jest" inspires music

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