What I learned from The Instructions

On Levin's The Instructions:

Wanting to like a book doesn't always work.

A book with many clever bits might not add up to something clever, in the end.

A book over 1000 pages is almost certainly less than the sum of its parts. (Aphorism not applicable to Infinite Jest.)

Funny carries you so far. Same kind of funny, over and over, begins to carry you less and less far.

Creating characters that the reader may not know how to take is a good start. It is not all that is needed.

Setting up your 1000-page novel as directly comparable to Infinite Jest via similar setting and smart-alecky characters is a bad idea. Unless you're really, really good.

McSweeney's binds books beautifully.

I'm glad to be done. A reviewer on Goodreads said they wanted to turn back to the first page. Not me. Levin's left me wanting less.