Infinite Jest

a novel

Paperback, 1104 pages

English language

Published November 2006 by Back Bay Books (Little Brown and Company).

ISBN:
978-0-316-06652-5
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OCLC Number:
76943370

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(1 review)

Set in an addicts' hallway house and a tennis academy, and featuring one of the moste endearing screwed-up families in contemporary fiction. Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to dominate our livs, 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 philisophical 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. (back cover)

34 editions

Review of 'Infinite Jest' on 'Goodreads'

If I liked Infinite Jest enough to give it 4 stars, then why did it take me almost 9 months to finish?

Some of this novel is just brilliant, and some of it went off the rails.

What's brilliant? In general, just about everything in the second half: Hal Incandenza at the "Inner Infant" meeting. Ortho Stice (yes, that's his name) stuck to the dormitory window. Don Gately in the hospital. The absurdity of the advertising industry.

I almost got defeated in the middle of the book, wondering how/if the rambling storylines were going to come together. Enough already with Remy Marathe and Hugh/Helen Steeply and the Quebec separatists. Enough with Mario Incandenza's film about the establishment of ONAN (Organization of North American Nations – Canada, US and Mexico), as enacted by puppets. Enough with Eschaton! I admit it…I started skipping text.

This is not a book to pick up …

Subjects

  • Popular American Fiction
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - General
  • General
  • Fiction / General
  • Addicts
  • Compulsive behavior