Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Infinite Jest
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest (1996) (edit title/settings)

by David Foster Wallace (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

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... read more

Summary edit see section history

Chronology's unimportant: this novel details the distinct but related worlds of the Enfield Tennis Academy, where teens get the life sucked out of them with the hope of making it to "The Show", and where seventeen year-old Hal Incandenza undergoes a metamorphosis at the hands of drug addiction... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Chronology's unimportant: this novel details the distinct but related worlds of the Enfield Tennis Academy, where teens get the life sucked out of them with the hope of making it to "The Show", and where seventeen year-old Hal Incandenza undergoes a metamorphosis at the hands of drug addiction and withdrawal. Just down the hill, at Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House <sic>, Don Gately and an ensemble of other misfits try to reform their lives and escape addiction to alcohol and drugs; it's a metaphor for the addiction to entertainment in America, which is also explicated in the third, overlying story: French terrorists in wheelchairs are trying to acquire a copy of a movie so good it's impossible to stop watching, which they hope to use to end American imperialism in North America. This is a geometrically organized spiderweb of a world that's built on a ethico-philosophico-moral premise that's impossible to shake loose.

Characters/People edit see section history

Show all 248 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “I am in here.”
    Hal Incandenza
  • “I don't hate myself. I just wanted out. I didn't want to play anymore is all.”
    Katherine Ann Gompert (page 70)
  • “That God might regard the issue of whether you believe there's a God or not as fairly low on his/her/its list of things s/he/it's interested in re you.”
    (page 205)
  • “It's not wanting to hurt myself it's want to <i>not hurt</i>.”
    Katherine Ann Gompert (p78)
  • “These worst mornings with cold floors and hot windows and merciless light—the soul’s certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically, and then that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling, again, off something tall and sheer.”
    Orin Incandenza

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Show all 39 settings

Organizations edit see section history

  • ONAN: Organization of North American Nations

First Sentence edit see section history

I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies.

Glossary edit see section history

  • Eschaton: A game played by the tennis players

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 158 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This book is in Big Fat Books. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This is book 71 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. David Foster Wallace (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN: 0316920045
Page Count: 1079

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: 95030619
  • Dewey: 813.083

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Freedom
  • Middlesex
  • The Marriage Plot

We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

© 2006-2013 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close