This is the book Jess reads at the dance marathon while sitting in the bleachers with Shane. (Yes, Jess isn’t a great boyfriend to Shane – forcing her to go to a dance marathon for seventeen hours so he can gaze at his crush and read a book!).
The Magic Mountain is a 1924 novel by German author Thomas Mann. Set in the decade before World War I, it is about a young man who spends seven years in a sanatorium for tuberculosis in the Swiss Alps. Vast, symbolic, and ambiguous, it is widely considered one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.
Thomas Mann was one Jack Kerouac’s favourite authors, and an influence on Visions of Cody, so it makes sense that Jess would choose to read it.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 