The story of an intelligent but zany dysfunctional family is set in a drug-and-alcohol addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy and follows such themes as heartbreak, philosophy, and advertising.
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The story of an intelligent but zany dysfunctional family is set in a drug-and-alcohol addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy and follows such themes as heartbreak, philosophy, and advertising.
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Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.28, good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
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Good. There is a signature or handwriting on the inside front cover. Pages are clean! The cover has visible markings and wear. Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.28, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill of the Olympics rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from TACOMA, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
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Fair. An acceptable and readable copy. All pages are intact, and the spine and cover are also intact. This item may have light highlighting, writing or underlining through out the book, curled corners, missing dust jacket and or stickers.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.29, good condition, Sold by GoodwillVSB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Oxnard, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
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Good. The book is nice and 100% readable, but the book has visible wear which may include stains, scuffs, scratches, folded edges, sticker glue, torn on front page, highlighting, notes, and worn corners.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.29, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.29, good condition, Sold by Seattle Goodwill rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
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May have some shelf-wear due to normal use. Your purchase funds free job training and education in the greater Seattle area. Thank you for supporting Goodwill's nonprofit mission!
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $5.79, fair condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $9.99, very good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Back Bay Books.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $9.99, very good condition, Sold by Half Price Books Inc rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Back Bay Books.
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Add this copy of Infinite Jest: a Novel to cart. $16.48, new condition, Sold by lobovtobooks rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Back Bay Books.
Add this copy of Infinite Jest to cart. $18.00, very good condition, Sold by Bison Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from winnipeg, MB, CANADA, published 1996 by Back Bay Books.
I just discovered Wallace and believe me, all the praise is deserved. This is a fascinating interweaving of stories and styles - all of them in such a true voice.
Can't believe he's gone.
Moserary
Jan 15, 2009
Genius Found, Genius Lost
What genre of novel is Infinite Jest? Spy thriller? Coming of age? Science fiction? Pot boiler? Psychodrama? Sports tale? Political satire? Pharmacopoeia? Action adventure? Side-splitting comedy? Great literature? YES, to all of the above. I'm recommending this book to all of my friends because I want to have people to talk to about it. Infinite Jest has been listed as one of the top 100 All Time Greatest Novels of 1923-2006.
Logophiliacs, lovers of words, will revel in this appetizer, salad, entree and piece de resistance of an entire word meal. Rather, each reading is a meal -- the whole tome is practically a steady diet. Whether you are a word gourmet or gourmand, Infinite Jest provides it all for you. If you have ever spouted a pun that went over heads or offered sarcasm that was taken literally, then this book is for you. You can practice catching word plays thrown at the speed of light and I can almost assure you that even YOU will fumble a few. The author was appointed to the usage panel for the American Heritage Dictionary and was a fan of The Oxford English. It seems clear, after several trips to the 'net for diction assistance, that he wanted to get in the OED himself. I hope he makes it, some of his new word forms and usages are dynamite.
Infinite Jest introduced me to style breakthroughs that I hope will be emulated: fictional endnotes, even meta fictional endnotes (if that is what you would call the fictional endnote containing the fictional footnote.) This author fears no new literary device and mixes them up with wide-grinning glee. Mr. Wallace also has developed stream-of-consciousness writing to it's finest degree yet. Previous authors have written the stream-of-consciousness of the protagonist in the language of the author; David Foster Wallace has written the cognitive processing of his characters in the very language of the characters themselves including the misspellings and vocabulary peculiarities that would be used by the character. This technique took me right into the cortex of the characters; I could feel the pleasure and the pain almost better than second hand.
I am a new David Foster Wallace fan: somehow, his name never stuck in my awareness files until I read his obituaries in a magazine this Fall. Since excellent writers were so distraught at Mr. Wallace's untimely suicide I needed to see what I had missed. Through the thoughts, feelings and experiences of several of his characters, Mr. Wallace has shown us poignantly the pain of his own life which was stalked by intractable depression and substance addiction. I join many of his students in forgiving him for depriving us of more of his spellbinding work -- the hurt was too large.
IamB
Aug 14, 2008
Mind Expanding Creativity
As a producer of stuff, in my case music, I am confronted with how much product is out there that mine must endeavor to rise above to succesfully clamor for significant public attention.
As a consumer, I am confronted with how much product is unspectacular, even if it does receive significant public attention.
As a seasoned consumer of books, I appreciate authors with adventurous creativity regardless of whether they receive significant public attention.
All that being said, I can only express how fortunate I feel that this book found me and I found it. It would've been so easy for us to miss each other.
Unquestionably, Infinite Jest required great ambition and focus to write, and requires a bit of ambition and focus to read as well. But if you are seeking something "other", then this book will not disappoint.
I felt compelled throughout to read it aloud, such was the almost poetic quality of it. It is filled with brilliant to-the-left humor and many opportunities to marvel at the far-reaching imagination of the human mind.
But although it stretches the boundaries of fiction, it does what all great fiction does well in that it provides a lens through which we may see ourselves. In this case, we see our somewhat twisted society with renewed clarity -- we see, in all its repugnance, the ludicrous determination of the over-indulged to find happiness via an ultimate source of numbing entertainment.
It is a superb work that feels like a blend between the ticklish quality of a child's mindless free-association and the mysterious and profound illuminating quality of a koan that resulted from a shaman's most devout, pure and total concentration.
What can I say. Buy it.
greebs
Feb 15, 2007
Well worth the effort!
The first two times I started this tome (it's over 1000 pages, plus an additional 300 pages of ENDNOTES), I gave up. It's twisted, confusing and schizophrenic in its pace. Whatever the reason, I gave the book a third chance - and persevered.
It is completely worth the effort.
The story - somewhat - is a tale of a tennis prodigy, a movie (called 'Infinite Jest') that is so captivating it renders the viewers useless, a rehab center and...well, lots and lots more. Though its trite, half the enjoyment of this book is the journey and not the story - but the story is great. Clever and funny, satirical and poignant, Infinite Jest is a struggle worth working through.
(One note - use two bookmarks...one for the book, one for the endnotes.)
