Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace

Little, Brown, Apr 13, 2009 - Fiction - 1104 pages

A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America 

Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human — and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.

With a foreword by Tom Bisell. 

"The next step in fiction...Edgy, accurate, and darkly witty...Think Beckett, think Pynchon, think Gaddis. Think." —Sven Birkerts, The Atlantic

 

What people are saying

User Review -

Infinite Jest
Some of the writing is the best I have read. This is not a plot driven novel, but rather a book commenting on society. Many characters who are unique and memorable. I recommend using the Wikipages to decode and decipher some obscure references.

User Review -

A life altering, earth shattering read
David Foster Wallace is a master of the English language. This post-post-modern fiction brings you deep into a well fleshed-out world of intrigue and emotion; prepare to lose yourself with the pages. With end-notes that can be as long as entire chapters of other books, I'm not sure how easy this would be to read on an e-reader, but it's worth a shot! Words can't describe the life the DFW breathes into his writing -- he is masterful, dark, witty, funny, thought-provoking, evocative, convoluted, and crystal clear, all at once. He is brilliant, and this book is his opus. ENJOY! 

About the author

David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers' Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Infinite Jest
• Author: David Foster Wallace
• Edition: unabridged
• Publisher: Little, Brown, 2009
• ISBN: 0316073857, 9780316073851
• Length: 1104 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Sports