<p>My teacher keeps telling me to have a few novels/plays fresh in my memory, so that I won’t have trouble choosing a work to fit the prompt. I understand that on the prompt, it allows you to choose a work that isn’t listed, so long as it is of merit. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to use David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest as the book to use for the prompt. I recently finished it, and it’s fresh in my mind. My concern is that it’s too recent of a work (1996), and that the readers will not have read it. Any thoughts? Is it an appropriate book to use, or should I just stick to the classics?</p>
<p>If you’re questioning whether or not to use it I would either:</p>
<p>A) Ask my AP Lit teacher.
B) Not use it.</p>
<p>I know “The Kite Runner” is okay to use, and that’s from 2003. Is this book you’ve read one of “literary merit”?</p>
<p>Does the work present some complicated and developed text? If so, it’s probably of literary merit. Good luck as with me I’m taking the test too. Try to research 3 books you’ve read that contains many universal themes</p>
<p>Infinite Jest is definitely of literary merit. However, I don’t know if you’ve truly understood its themes the same way that you have for, say, Huck Finn, or Portrait of the Artist as Young Man, etc. In these books, your teacher taught you how to extricate the meaning from the text. In IJ, while a fantastic book, has many ironic and paradoxical themes that you probably don’t even know about, if you’ve only read it once. I’d recommend using another book.</p>