Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
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List Price: $17.99
Our Price: $9.97
Your Save: $ 8.02 ( 45% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.083
EAN: 9780316066525
ISBN: 0316066524
Label: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1104
Publication Date: 2006-11-13
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: This is how God Writes
Comment: Brilliance--pure and simple, being qualifications of brilliance--or rather, the qualifications of the qualification of brilliance, as in anyone can see this novel is a product of brilliance--not the novel, which is dirty and complex and: BRILLIANT. This is how God writes. You could swear this book had at least three authors as its motley of characters communicate with a detailed affectation that seems impossible to foster in a single individual. Please note: I resisted the urge to parenthetically state there was no pun intended after "foster" in the last sentence. Too cliche--something Wallace would execrate. If you're fascinated by drugs, the human condition, tennis, and/or violence, then this book is for you. This is an excellent book for aspiring writers; this is an awful book for people of average to less-than-average intelligence. DFW, requiescat in pace. I love you more than anyone I've ever known.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Infinitely illiterate
Comment: Infinite Jest
Save yourself the trouble, do not buy, borrow, or worst of all, attempt to read this book.
It is a rambling, prolix, repetitive outpouring of techno-babble, with an invented universe of characters of no interest, sentences too long to unravel (even the author seems to forget to match subject with far-distant predicate on occasions), and an invisible plot.
I borrowed the book, determined with my characteristic tenacity to wade through at least the first 100 of its almost 1000 pages. I made it to page 103, by which time no character held any interest, the story (if there was one) had eluded me, and I found my eyelids dropping at the very thought of opening it to read a few more tortuous pages.
I am fortified by the knowledge that Time Magazine disagrees with me, citing it as one of the best 100 novels written since 1923. And this from the magazine that supported US policy in Vietnam.
If you want to find out about drugs, buy the Pharmocopeia, or read William Burroughs. If you want to read about tennis, buy McEnroe's autobiography. If you want to spend a dozen hours trying to unravel a discontinuous narrative full of unconnected arcane technicalities, attempt to read Infinite Jest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Infinite Loss
Comment: Every word is hilarious including the prepositions. So much to love. So much to grieve.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece That Has No Peers
Comment: Don't let its length or erudition on subjects such as competitive tennis, pharmacology, AA, Quebecquois separatist groups and a game called Eschaton put you off. Ignore the reviews by people who think Wallace's fiction is accessible only to academics and literary pros. Great literature is for everyone, and Infinite Jest is great. Its multi-faceted story and spectacular language are the work of a master. And unlike some of its imitations, Infinite Jest is both profound and funny.
A caveat: this is not the kind of book you can pick up and put down. You really need to read it daily in order to keep track of the many characters and stories. But it's a lot of fun.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hysterically sad and tragically funny
Comment: I'm a big fan of David Foster Wallace, a once-in-a-generation artist who, unfortunately for the rest of us, recently committed suicide. His death hit me surprisingly hard, considering I'd never met the man. As a personal tribute, I picked up his masterpiece again for a third read.
It's a sprawling work of genius, hysterically sad and tragically funny, about the pursuit of happiness and the difficulties of communication. Set in a near future world where the years are corporate-sponsored and America handles its garbage by catapulting it onto land we forced Canada to accept as a "gift," the novel is too big and brilliant to be summed up. All I can say is that if the length (1079 pages) and complexity (scores of characters, 100 pages of footnotes, deeply recursive language) don't scare you, then reading it can change the way you think about fiction. It's not everybody's taste, but it thoroughly blows my mind.
Rest in peace, brother.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: This is how God Writes
Comment: Brilliance--pure and simple, being qualifications of brilliance--or rather, the qualifications of the qualification of brilliance, as in anyone can see this novel is a product of brilliance--not the novel, which is dirty and complex and: BRILLIANT. This is how God writes. You could swear this book had at least three authors as its motley of characters communicate with a detailed affectation that seems impossible to foster in a single individual. Please note: I resisted the urge to parenthetically state there was no pun intended after "foster" in the last sentence. Too cliche--something Wallace would execrate. If you're fascinated by drugs, the human condition, tennis, and/or violence, then this book is for you. This is an excellent book for aspiring writers; this is an awful book for people of average to less-than-average intelligence. DFW, requiescat in pace. I love you more than anyone I've ever known.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Infinitely illiterate
Comment: Infinite Jest
Save yourself the trouble, do not buy, borrow, or worst of all, attempt to read this book.
It is a rambling, prolix, repetitive outpouring of techno-babble, with an invented universe of characters of no interest, sentences too long to unravel (even the author seems to forget to match subject with far-distant predicate on occasions), and an invisible plot.
I borrowed the book, determined with my characteristic tenacity to wade through at least the first 100 of its almost 1000 pages. I made it to page 103, by which time no character held any interest, the story (if there was one) had eluded me, and I found my eyelids dropping at the very thought of opening it to read a few more tortuous pages.
I am fortified by the knowledge that Time Magazine disagrees with me, citing it as one of the best 100 novels written since 1923. And this from the magazine that supported US policy in Vietnam.
If you want to find out about drugs, buy the Pharmocopeia, or read William Burroughs. If you want to read about tennis, buy McEnroe's autobiography. If you want to spend a dozen hours trying to unravel a discontinuous narrative full of unconnected arcane technicalities, attempt to read Infinite Jest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Infinite Loss
Comment: Every word is hilarious including the prepositions. So much to love. So much to grieve.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece That Has No Peers
Comment: Don't let its length or erudition on subjects such as competitive tennis, pharmacology, AA, Quebecquois separatist groups and a game called Eschaton put you off. Ignore the reviews by people who think Wallace's fiction is accessible only to academics and literary pros. Great literature is for everyone, and Infinite Jest is great. Its multi-faceted story and spectacular language are the work of a master. And unlike some of its imitations, Infinite Jest is both profound and funny.
A caveat: this is not the kind of book you can pick up and put down. You really need to read it daily in order to keep track of the many characters and stories. But it's a lot of fun.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hysterically sad and tragically funny
Comment: I'm a big fan of David Foster Wallace, a once-in-a-generation artist who, unfortunately for the rest of us, recently committed suicide. His death hit me surprisingly hard, considering I'd never met the man. As a personal tribute, I picked up his masterpiece again for a third read.
It's a sprawling work of genius, hysterically sad and tragically funny, about the pursuit of happiness and the difficulties of communication. Set in a near future world where the years are corporate-sponsored and America handles its garbage by catapulting it onto land we forced Canada to accept as a "gift," the novel is too big and brilliant to be summed up. All I can say is that if the length (1079 pages) and complexity (scores of characters, 100 pages of footnotes, deeply recursive language) don't scare you, then reading it can change the way you think about fiction. It's not everybody's taste, but it thoroughly blows my mind.
Rest in peace, brother.
In a sprawling, wild, super-hyped magnum opus, David Foster Wallace fulfills the promise of his precocious novelThe Broom of the System.Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction, features a huge cast and multilevel narrative, and questions essential elements of American culture - our entertainments, our addictions, our relationships, our pleasures, our abilities to define ourselves.
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