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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5 stars (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)

26 editions

Not what I expected

5 stars

This books is amazing in many ways but is hard to compare to other more conventional stories and novels. It has a unique narrative structure and a radically chaotic use of language. I have to say I was skeptical at first and nearly gave up on this at several points, but it drew me in and by the end I was in love with its weird, quirky natures. The story itself is disjointed and a bit uninteresting when distilled from the way it is told and language used to tell it. That said it draws you in and is strong enough to hold up the novel through what is a marathon length telling. A lot of what happens in the book seems to be in service of some other purpose than serving to move the story along. It seems to be making points about society, human nature, morality and humanity …

Subjects

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