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Infinite Jest

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Infinite Jest

By: David Foster Wallace
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
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'A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything' New York Times

'Wallace is a superb comedian of culture . . . his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight' James Wood, Guardian

'He induces the kind of laughter which, when read in bed with a sleeping partner, wakes said sleeping partner up . . . He's damn good' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

'One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory' Sunday Times

Somewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at the nearby Enfield Tennis Academy are ensnared in the search for the master copy of Infinite Jest, a movie said to be so dangerously entertaining its viewers become entranced and expire in a state of catatonic bliss . . .©2008 David Foster Wallace Absurdist Dark Humour Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

Extraordinary... an astonishing and vast epic of contemporary American culture
A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything
An exploding star of a novel... reading the book is itself a sort of addiction... Wallace writes with authority, deep feeling and caustic wit
Ambitious, accomplished, deeply humorous, brilliant and witty and moving. A literary sensation
Wallace's exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight, and he has deep things to say about the hollowness of contemporary American pleasure... sentences and whole pages are marvels of comic concentration... Wallace is a superb comedian of culture (James Wood)
A remarkable satire on American entertainment and addiction... the book's mixture of maniacal inventiveness and comic brio gradually becomes an addiction itself... Enormously readable and quite ridiculously entertaining... a book of our times (Anthony Quinn)
From the hilarious to the deliberately infuriating, Infinite Jest packs a considerable range of bawdy, satirical excursions... Wallace's central concerns are powerfully and disturbingly given form in the blurry hinterland where recreation meets slavery
Scenes of gruesome hilarity and some of genuine tragedy... The most relevant portrayal of American culture to appear in recent years, Infinite Jest is fascinating, ridiculous and excruciating, and a stimulating injection into contemporary American culture
Wallace's prose, ebullient and complex, transmits at once the vitality and absurd decadence of his culture... as an assessment of America, the novel is both powerful and troubling
One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory... a dystopian fantasy of the near future, a meditation about avant-garde cinema, a burlesque of North American politics and a critique of sports culture... positively sings with lyrical insight and wry humour
Funny, smart and perceptively written
Massive, unflagging, ingenious, an eccentric portrait of America in decline, a study in addiction, a raucous comedy of manners and mania
Darkly comic
An insight into modern addictions and spiritual frustrations
Wallace's theme is addiction: to drugs, to death, to entertainment. His compulsive style mixes erudite and slacker jargon, pseudoscience and urban slang (often in the same sentence) and always in precise detail. Rousing prose breathes on to every page
Infinite Jest seems to fulfil every promise that David Foster Wallace displayed in his precocious and stunning The Broom of the System. If you want to know who's upholding the high comic tradition - passed down from Sterne to Swift to Pynchon - it's Wallace
All stars
Most relevant
This book has been on my mind so much, that it has made me realise I haven't been as obsessively affected by an artistic creation like this since I was a teenager. Rewards multiple listens. The first time I listened, I really struggled through the early chapters. But I was listening to DFW talking about the book in an interview around the time of it's release, it was described as "a fractal novel". Once I'd heard that, I understood what I was listening to in a different way. Since then, I haven't been able to stop returning to uncover more of the picture. Which is almost ironic, given the nature of the eponymous macguffin film within the novel. Believe the hype.

A cycloning, philosophical novel. Mind bending and funny.

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A true Masterpiece! As a disclaimer; I am far from qualified to dole out literary review, though I can say for myself, that this experience has changed my life substantially. Made me want to find a higher power only to thank for the experience, or the entertainment. Made me want to curse the higher power for not intervening to keep David Foster Wallace here on Earth. I've reached the end of a book that I know for myself will never be over.

Thank You Sean Pratt!

I feel bereft now that it's over

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just absolutely fantastic in language, subject. great performance. second time I listened and certainly not the last!

brilliant.

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Infinite Jest is one of those books that a lot of people know of but have never read. So creating an audiobook version is a no-brainer. Partly since it makes the book more accessible and partly because it lets you enjoy the flow of Wallace's prose. Add to that Sean Pratt does a fantastic job. But be warned: this audiobook has no End Notes. I understand it would be difficult to get them to work in audio format, but the version on Audible US has them, so why can't we? Please Audible, add the end notes, and then this would be perfect.

Great Book, Great Performance, but no End Notes.

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I guess the main point of something like this is to help you decide Should I listen to this or not?

It is long - but then the reader is doing the work for you. And he does a superb job 95% of the time. His tone seems absolutely right generally and he dramatises brilliantly some passages which merit being dramatised.
I can’t say I like everything about Infinite Jest. Parts of it I would describe as mildly entertaining. Parts seem gratuitously disturbing. But it’s not for those parts I recommend you listen to it or read it. The most telling passages are truly bravura pieces of writing which I would be very sorry to have not encountered. Sometimes deeply moving, sometimes very funny, sometimes just spectacularly well observed. Writing of this quality is such a rarity we can’t afford to miss out on it.

Yes - here’s why.

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