Infinite jest by david foster wallace, paperback barnes. Infinite jest, in other words, can be exceedingly frustrating. Reviewers of wallaces recent novel those who havent used words like experimental and postmodern as standins for more substantive insight on the book s curious lack of plot resolution have nevertheless found at least a little realism. Books go search best sellers gift ideas new releases deals. This book is clearly misnamed, perhaps a third of this book pertains to infinite jest, the rest a somewhat rambling brownian discussion of wallaces work and his influences. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, 9780316066525, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. To fully understand what wallace was up to, the book bears being read, and reread, with talmudic focus and devotion. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in recent fiction. But if you are seeking something other, then this book will not disappoint.
Infinite jest has become an exemplar for difficulty in contemporary fictionits 1,079 pages full of verbal invention, oblique narration, and a scattered, nonlinear, chronology. I felt compelled throughout to read it aloud, such was the almost poetic quality of it. Infinite jest by david foster wallace knowledge lost. Infinite jest, a friend of wallaces commented to me when i was researching every love story is a ghost story, the biography of wallace that i wrote, reads like a valentine to a. The plot of infinite jest takes place in a somewhatmoredystopian future uni. Elegant complexity is the first critical work to provide detailed and thorough commentary on each of the 192 sections of david foster wallaces masterful infinite jest. Detailed summary, analysis and reading guide by bright summaries apr 8, 2019 paperback. Personally, i hated infinite jest and i cant imagine ill ever want to reread any of it.
So infinite jest gets its title from hamletthe melancholy dane meditating on death and remembering poor yorick, the court jester. As the novel unfolds, various individuals, organizations. It is designed as a resource for potential readers who fear infinite jest is plotless. 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. There are copious webpages out there that the firsttime jesters will find useful. Having said that, i feel pretty confident in asserting that it is not the greatest book in existence. With regard to the basic 14 plot line, the setting for the majority of the action is enfield, a fictional suburbia town outside of boston. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup 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. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Book depository books with free delivery worldwide. At the top of a hill is the enfield tennis academy, and at the base of the hill is the ennet house. The infinite jest utilities page, which includes chapter thumbnails and an. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop. Wallaces reputation will only grow, and like one of the broken columns beloved of romantic painters, the.
A chronology at the end of the study reorders each section of the novel into a sequential timeline that orients the reader and that could be used to support a chronological reading of the novel. Infinite jest explores the idea that all humans are addicts and examines how the chosen drugs particularly entertainment of late 20th century americans eat them alive. This deluxe paperback editionfeaturing flaps, new cover art, and a new foreword by tom bissellcelebrates the 20th anniversary of the original publication of infinite jest. The book is drumtight and relentlessly smart and, though it does not wear its heart on its sleeve, its deeply felt and incredibly moving. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines.
Kindle direct publishing indie digital publishing made easy. Infinite jest kindle edition by wallace, david foster. Amazon, book depository or visit your local indie bookstore in the not so distant future, the residents of a boston halfway house for recovering addicts and the students of the enfield tennis academy both search for the master copy of a bizarre. Burn, 9781441157072, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Infinite jest is both sad, depressed and funny and even 25 years after it was published in 1994 remains relevant to the modern age. David foster wallace was born in ithaca, new york, in 1962 and raised in illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, 9780349121086, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. A collection of insightful and uproariously funny nonfiction by the bestselling author of infinite jest one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time.
It is rare to find a reader who is lukewarm about this book. The novel infinite jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding addictions of their own. In fact, its take on the very nature of entertainment itself perhaps foresaw the age of vanity and social media, as seen through the prisms of tinder, facebook, twitter and instagram. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, 9780316306058, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide.
My first attempt was a list of advice on reading the novelthe submission of which prompted infsums dungeon master, matthew baldwin, to write back with a frowny face and a. Eggerss introduction observed that infinite jest was 1,067 pages long and there is not one lazy sentence. At the macro level, infinite jest consists of numerous anticonfluential wallaces word episodes set a dozen years or so in the future as was the broom, at a time when numerical designations for years have been sold to corporate sponsors. Shielded heart the infinite city book 2 by tiffany roberts. Technically, since the book was originally published in. Infinite jest by david foster wallace book analysis. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are a total of 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.
A readers guide was the first book to be published on the novel and is a key reference for those who wish to explore further. A chronology at the end of the study reorders each section of the novel into a sequential timeline that orients the reader and that could be used to support a. Buy infinite jest by david foster wallace online at alibris. Free delivery worldwide on over 20 million books we use cookies to give you the best possible experience.
Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading infinite jest. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. No other commentary on infinite jest recognizes that wallace clearly divided the book into 28 chapters that are thematically unified. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. I was wondering if someone could explain it to me, not necessarily in the context of the book, but just as a concept in general. Infinite jest by paul barolsky, 97808262024, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. David foster wallace wrote the novels the pale king, infinite jest and the broom.
Annulation in infinite jest im almost done with infinite jest and ive noticed that david foster wallace brings up annulation a lot. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. In 2006, little brown published a 10th anniversary edition of david foster wallaces infinite jest that featured a foreword by dave eggers. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. A few weeks ago, i wrote the foreword for infinite summer, a summerlong collective read of infinite jest, david foster wallaces bigass novel and one of my favorite books. Home services handpicked professionals happiness guarantee. He received a masters of fine arts from university of arizona in 1987 and. In the 17th century, with the introduction of the infinity symbol and the. Im ready to begin reading wallaces infinite jest, a 1,000 page everest of a book, which im looking forward to about as much as i was to reading joyces ulysses. Caricature and satire from leonardo to levine by constance c. Since the time of the ancient greeks, the nature of infinity was the subject of many discussions among philosophers see infinity philosophy.