The Center of Gravity
I'm on my second read for Infinite Summer and I can't get over how incredible the following section of the book is.
Pages 538-619
Starts with "It is starting to get quietly around Ennet House that Randy Lenz..." and ends with "...Lenz and Green's shows coming together..."
This section has no title and just starts with the typographical circle. It has so many rewarding plot points and the section feels like a gravitational pull where all of the stories come together before spinning you back out to the fringes again.
The key stories in this section include:
- Lenz's Animal Killing
- Rodney Tine to Boston
- Pemulis Catches Avril
- Gately Gets Shot
- Orin and the Swiss Hand Model
Within these smaller stories there's other great moments like Wayne sticking his head into Hal's room after the Pemulis incident, Irslandian walking around blindfolded, Gately recognizing Joelle's voice as Madame Psychosis...
I feel like the section is such a payoff. The section in isolation is pure chaos. The section with context of the rest of the book is amazing. It's like being in on a hundred little jokes that only you and DFW are in on.