Feb 26, 2016 12 if you think infinite jest at 1,100odd pages is a long book, be advised that it started longer. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop. Infinite jest is a novel written by david foster wallace. I felt compelled throughout to read it aloud, such was the almost poetic quality of it. Without endnotes, the audiobook version of infinite jest ends up being around 56 hours. It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. 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. After starting and stopping infinite jest twice before, i believe i now have a fairly strong method for making progress. The first chapter of infinite jest is one of the best examples ive read in recent years. What its like to record the audiobook version of infinite jest.
What its like to record the audiobook version of infinite. Start a free 30day trial today and get your first audiobook free. Infinite jest, david foster walaces massive 1,079page tome, is one of the most beloved books of this millennium, but it is also one that through sheer dint of its size has taken on almost religious reverence. I guess this is a first for me and ill get straight to the point. While i cant read the book not even the end notes for you, i. The buzzing claustrophobic energy of infinite jest placed wallace in the company of pynchon and delillo the wall street journal.
And the bouncing backandforth is a feature, not a bug. The book is in excellent condition and is bound in the publishers blue cloth. 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. Partly since it makes the book more accessible and partly because it lets you enjoy the flow of wallaces prose. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. If you cant bring yourself to work over your only copy of infinite jest, consider investing in a second. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, paperback barnes. Under the bleak and chilly surface, infinite jest is a. 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.
Infinite jest by david foster wallace, first edition. Touch paper and feel connected to hundreds of years of printed language. 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, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives. In 2004, chad harbach declared that, in retrospect, infinite jest now looks like the central american novel of the past thirty years, a dense star for lesser work to orbit. Apr, 2009 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, infinite jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives. Infinite jests characters are authors of this realm of the novel. Buy hardcover copy of infinite jest at brickandmortar bookstore. David foster wallace wrote the acclaimed novels infinite jest and the broom of the. Why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semiparodic future version of north america, and touches on substance addiction recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising, popular entertainment, film theory, quebec separatism, and tennis, among other topics. David foster wallace interview on infinite jest with leonard lopate 031996. Perhaps through a sort of literary stockholm syndrome, people that read infinite jest tend to worship it afterwards.
Infinite jest is both sad, depressed and funny and even 25 years after it was published in 1994 remains relevant to the modern age. After trial, get 1 audiobook and 2 audible originals each month. Unquestionably, infinite jest required great ambition and focus to write, and requires a bit of ambition and focus to read as well. A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything new york times wallace is a superb comedian of culture. There is stuff that happens in the opening pages that explains events at the end of the book, albeit over pages and hundreds of footnotes away. 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.
It was the hardest book ive ever done, pratt says, but its one of my proudest. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace. Having only read the first extremely exhausting chapter, i cant tell you whether i would feel this way after two or more. I cant recommend the purchase of the what at first appears to be the amazing ive heard good things about the audio, excellent vocal performance audio book of infinite jest. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. Thousands of socially networked bibliophiles have pledged to tackle david foster wallaces infinite jest over three months this summer. They used to own a bookstore, and my dad was looking around through a closet filled with galleys and uncovered this along with a copy of the rum diaries.
Infinite jest works well in audiobook form and this is in no small part helped by sean pratts fantastic reading complete with impressive changes in accent, tone and characterisation. On reading the first chapter of infinite jest sally allen. During the scene in which don gately receives his gunshot, two men. But if you are seeking something other, then this book will not disappoint. 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.
Calling to mind that infinite jest was published in 1996, dont think crystal meth is a new phenomenon. Infinite jest by david foster wallace, first edition, signed. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. Infinite boston was and, you know, still is a limitedrun essay series about the reallife boston area locations figuring in david foster wallaces 1996 novel infinite jest, which was published on this website as a daily feature from julyseptember 2012. Infinite jest is a american pale wheat ale style beer brewed by notch brewing in salem, ma. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Wallace, or his narrator, only of the translation of those authors work into language.
I received an email earlier today from a reader who had excitedly received their unabridged audio book of infinite jest only to discover that in. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Infinite jest by david foster wallace audiobook 37 duration. Infinite jest by david foster wallace overdrive rakuten. Infinite summer blog archive how to read infinite jest. Infinite jest is one of those books that a lot of people know of but have never read. I was thinking of starting the prophet, mostly because it. Without endnotes, the audiobook version of infinite jest ends up. I received an email earlier today from a reader who had excitedly received their unabridged audio book of. In a sprawling, wild, superhyped magnum opus, david foster wallace fulfills the promise of his precocious novel the broom of the system. This woman has been slowly eating infinite jest for a year. You wont always have the requisite oxford english dictionary within arms reach, you know. Feb 01, 1996 admittedly, infinite jest is a tough book.
I cant recommend the purchase of the what at first appears to be the amazing ive heard good things about the audio. Whether its drugs, sex, or fame, the novels primary goal is to examine the need for these addictions and show that it is possible to addicted to addiction itself. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, infinite jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. Infinite jest david foster wallace first edition signed. Audiobooks are a great alternative for those of us who spend the workday with our eyes glued to a computer screen. Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. A spectacular copy signed by david foster wallace on the title page. Dec 05, 2015 david foster wallace reads from the pale king and incarnations of burned children 122000 duration. We specialize in rare, signed, and manuscript ayn rand, history, and science. Fine in a fine first state dust jacket with vollmann misspelled on the back panel. You start the book having no clue when it is happening and who the various characters are. This is long listen but the chapters are well paced, and as mentioned, sean pratt reads with a deep sensitivity and knowledge of the text and the author.
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. Because of his schedule, pratt had to record it in sections, interspaced by the other books he was narrating. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by david foster wallace comprising about 1,000 pages. In a 2008 retrospective by the new york times, infinite jest was described as a masterpiece thats also a monster nearly 1,100 pages of mindblowing inventiveness. I am somewhat tempted to immediately start again, since the end is the beginning and you really cant pick it all up in a single read, but if anyone has a good followup or comedown read suggestion id be glad to hear. When someone recommends you read this book, ask them how much virginia woolf, marguerite yourcenar. At the top of a hill is the enfield tennis academy, and at the base of the hill is the ennet house. Because this site has no search tool or archive feature, ive collected the series entire run into a single list, presented here in. Infinite jest by david foster wallace free download.
Apr 12, 2012 why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book infinite jest i guess this is a first for me and ill get straight to the point. Everything ive ever let go of has claw marks on it 606. At the top of a hill is the enfield tennis academy, and at the base of the hill is the ennet hou. The audio book club on david foster wallaces infinite jest.
Why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book infinite jest. Or rather, my parents found a neat copy of infinite jest. The new york times best book of the year, 1997 time magazine best book of the year 1997 charles mason 17281786 and jeremiah dixon 17331779 were the british surveyors best remembered for running. Infinite jest is regarded as a literary bestseller, having sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication.
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. The following was drafted by matt bucher maintainer of the wallacel listserv and author of this post, and augmented by input from nick maniatis administrator of the howling fantods, a site devoted to dfw, and kathleen fitzpatrick professor at pomona college, who teaches a course entitled david foster wallace theres no wrong way to read infinite jest. If one of your reading resolutions is to finally finish infinite jest, david foster wallaces mammoth novel, im here to help. This is absolutely my favorite book and im sorely tempted to open it, even though i know that will hurt the collectibility of it.
They are not boring bibliographic details, but rather an integral part of the text. Jul 11, 2012 after starting and stopping infinite jest twice before, i believe i now have a fairly strong method for making progress. Browse david foster wallaces bestselling audiobooks and newest titles. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of infinite jest by david foster wallace. Feb 15, 2016 today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline. There are those days, after all, that our poor eyes are simply too strained to take in that bedside copy of infinite jest youve been meaning to finish. The novel is a interconnected sequence of events, told out of timeline order, that focuses on addiction in all its forms. 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. Mar 08, 2016 the first chapter of infinite jest is one of the best examples ive read in recent years.
Wallace wrote to a friend that the fuckers cut by 600 pages from the first version. Listen to infinite jest by david foster wallace available from rakuten kobo. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. David foster wallace audio books, best sellers, author bio. Jun 17, 2009 if you cant bring yourself to work over your only copy of infinite jest, consider investing in a second.