About this title: Set in the near-future, this swirling comedy/epic revolves around a tennis academy, a residence for recovering substance abusers, a tight group of Quebecois-separatist terrorists, and "Infinite Jest", a film so funny that it literally kills. Perhaps one of the most ambitious attempts to capture the spirit of the age, Wallace's pervasive theme is ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Little, Brown
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Paperback, NO highlighting or notes, old prices marked out on endpaper, wear to corners and edges(a bit dog eared); otherwise, a tight, clean copy. INV#H-4 G/no DJ. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean pages, no marks or tears, mild reading wear with corners turned up, dirt soiling to outer page edges, corners/edges bumped, tight binding, solid. glued binding. 1088 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780316921176ISBN:0316921173
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Very Good: clean, bright and unmarked. Shows only mild shelfwear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 1088 p. read more
Edition: 3rd Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. Fine/Fine 3rd printing in an unclipped dust jacket. Remainder mark bottom edge. A beautiful clean and tight copy. Unread. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co
Date Published: 1996-02-01
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780316920049. read more
Edition: 1st Printing
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780316921176ISBN:0316921173
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. ~clean text, tight binding, light wear to exterior, A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this book benefit Penrose Memorial Library at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, Earthlight Books, and the local... Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 1088 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: 7th Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 1996-02-01
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Very Good. Very Good-Condition. Binding tight, pages clean. 7th Printing. Dust Jacket is protected in plastic sheath. Extreme page edges have handler's smudges. Very nice copy withal! read more
Edition: First Edition ~1st Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown, Boston
Date Published: 1996
Description: First softcover printing of the late author's masterwork, near fine in uncreased illustrated covers; stain across the bottom of textblock near the spine, very gentle bump on the bottom corner of the front spine else a tight square unmarked copy with an uncreased spine and complete number line on copyright page. read more
Edition: First Edition.
Publisher: LITTLE, BROWN & CO., BOSTON
Date Published: 1996
Description: BROADSIDE. Printed on both sides of a single sheet. (8 1/2" X 22") Fine in folded quarters. One side presents a short essay by the author. On the reverse is an excerpt from "Infinite Jest. " An uncommon ephemeral item. read more
Edition: First edition, as stated
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co, London
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. Rubs at corners and lower edges of boards and spine ends. Closed pages slightly soiled. Some pen and pencil marks on front free end page. Overall great condition. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown, Boston
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780316920049ISBN:0316920045
Description: Fine in Very Good jacket. Small crimp to the bottom of the dust jacket at the spine and bottom back cover. Black ink remainder mark on the bottom edge. Otherwise the true first printing with the William "Volman" misspelling. Appears to be an unread copy. read more
Edition: STATED FIRST EDITION
Binding: HARDCOVER
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co, BOSTON, MASS
Date Published: 1996
Description: Near Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. Wallace's most significant novel. True first with full number line and Vollmann's named misspelled as "Vollman" on rear panel of jacket. Negligible bit of creasing to spine caps. Very small (1/16th in. ) faint spot to top edge. Original $29.95 dust jacket price intact. Tight, bright copy of this rare and important novel by one of the twentieth-century's finest novelists. Infinite Jest made the Time "All Time Greatest Novels" list, covering 1923-2006. Quite scarce ... read more
Edition: First Softcover Edition
Binding: Illustrated Wrappers
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780316921176ISBN:0316921173
Description: Near Fine. Signed and Inscribed First printing of the trade softcover edition of Wallace's magnum opus. Signed and inscribed on the title page: "For Dave w/many thanks David Foster Wallace". Oversized softcover, clean with no markings except for the inscription. A nearly fine copy with slight bowing to spine and light edgewear and rubbing to covers. read more
"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."
"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."
"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.
"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.)"
New York Times Book Review, 03/03/1996 "...this skeleton of satire is fleshed out with several domestically scaled narratives and masses of hyperrealistic quotidian detail. The overall effect is something like a sleek Vonnegut chassis wrapped in layers of post-millennial Zola." -- Jay McInerney
Washington Post Book World, 03/24/1996 "Well, there is nothing epic or infinite about this, although much that's repetitious or long....this is not so much a novel of ideas as a novel of brand names and acronyms. They sweep past one's eye in a flutter that leaves only one thing to hope for, and that is style." -- Paul West
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, 02/11/1996 "There's no doubt that Wallace's talent is immense and his imagination limitless. When he backs off and gives his narrative some breathing room, he emerges as a consistently innovative, sensitive, and intelligent writer." -- David Eggers,
Boston Book Review, March 1996 "Wallace has not so much written a novel as created a system, an intricately engineered internally consistent system that is fueled by his endless imagination, his pure verbal prowess and a language that looks familiar but feels utterly invented." -- David McLean
Voice Literary Supplement, March 1996 "...so few American writers show anything resembling Wallace's critical engagement with the popular culture that disowns them. At minimum, he's the funniest writer of his generation. I can't decide if I want his next book to be shorter or not." -- Jonathan Dee
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