David Foster Wallace
2009-04-13
The 30th anniversary edition of the virtuosic, wickedly comic modern classic about the pursuit of happiness in America, with a new foreword by Michelle Zauner, author of the New York Times bestselling sensation Crying in H Mart.
“To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one; this is the other.” —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
Set in an addicts’ halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up 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; 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 philosophical 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 renews the idea of what a novel can do.
“Uproarious ... Infinite Jest shows off Wallace as one of the big talents of his generation, a writer … who can seemingly do anything.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“The next step in fiction ... Edgy, accurate, and darkly witty ... Think Beckett, think Pynchon, think Gaddis. Think.” —Sven Birkerts, The Atlantic
One of Time magazine’s “100 Best Novels” (1923—2005)
Wallace's magnum opus demanded my undivided attention, a cerebral labyrinth that rewards patience and perseverance. The author's encyclopedic breadth and postmodern playfulness resonate with my own predilection for complexity and meta-narratives. His incisive critique of consumerism and addiction feels both timely and timeless, an incisive exploration of the human condition. The nested narrative structure and digressions are as challenging as they are compelling, a veritable 'funhouse mirror' of contemporary society.
