Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch it. People die happily, viewing it in endless repetition. 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. As the novel unfolds, various individuals, organizations, and governments vie to obtain the master copy of Infinite Jest for their own ends, and the denizens of the tennis school and the halfway house are caught up in increasingly desperate efforts to control the movie - as is a cast including burglars, transvestite muggers, scam artists, medical professionals, pro football stars, bookies, drug addicts both active and recovering, film students, political assassins, and one of the most endearingly messed-up families ever captured in a novel. On this outrageous frame hangs an exploration of essential questions about what entertainment is, and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment interacts with our need to connect with other humans; 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. The huge cast and multilevel narrative serve a story that accelerates to a breathtaking, heartbreaking, unforgettable conclusion. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human - and one of those rare books that renew the very idea of what a novelcan do.

A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything * NEW YORK TIMES *
Wallace is a superb comedian of culture. . his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight * James Woods, GUARDIAN *
He induces the kind of laughter which, when read in bed with a sleeping partner, wakes said sleeping partner up . . . He's damn good * Nicholas Lezard, GUARDIAN *
One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory. * SUNDAY TIMES *

David Foster Wallace is the author of the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System, the story collections Girl with Curious Hair and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster. His writings have appeared in Esquire, Harper's, the New Republic, New Yorker, Paris Review and other magazines. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Award for Fiction, the Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize and John Train Prize for Humour, and the O. Henry Award. David Foster Wallace died in 2008.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780349121086
ISBN 10	0349121087
Title	Infinite Jest
Author	David Foster Wallace
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Little, Brown Book Group
Year published	1997-06-05
Number of pages	1104
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable