Infinite jest, david foster wallace, back bay books, 1996. The joy of audio books, like when they stop you in your tracks. Part of the point is to tear us away from our comfortable perspectives and make us shove our feet into uncomfortable shoes poor tonys heels, walk a few miles, and then think about what just happened. Yrstrly and poor tony come back as does everything in this book. Infinite jest is just one of the books ive listened to that was far. Set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and. I guess this is a first for me and ill get straight to the point.
So, i know the audio book has been out for a while, and they have recently released the end notes as a separate. David foster wallace 19622008 was the new york times bestselling author of infinite jest, the broom of the system, and girl with curious hair. With regard to the basic 14 plot line, the setting for the majority of the action is enfield, a fictional suburbia town outside of boston. I really hated reading poor tony chapters too, but he does have a few interesting things coming up regarding the main plot. There had been wonder in pressing my hand against the continuous flow and watching the.
Im intimidated by immediately jumping into infinite jest, because its such a beast of a book but im not ruling it out by any means. Its not a stretch or very original to call infinite jest the defining work of the 1990s. Please take a vote on which you think would be a good intro into his work. At the macro level, infinite jest consists of numerous anticonfluential wallaces word episodes set a dozen years or so in the future as was the broom, at a time when numerical. Audiobooks are a great alternative for those of us who spend the workday with our eyes glued to a computer screen. Like your infinite jest respectables who quietly retreated as far as possible from the. Infinite jest, a friend of wallaces commented to me when i was researching every love story is a ghost story, the biography of wallace that i wrote, reads like a valentine to a. In fact i listen to it repeatedly almost obsessively although not quite so bad as steeplys fathers obsession with. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Be painfully aware of how much easier it becomes to be in their. Infinite summer formed in the summer of 2009 to read david foster wallaces masterwork infinite jest. If you have not read infinite jest there are major spoilers to be found.
Poor tony is jewishtheres a whole scene about his dad ritually disowning him. I received an email earlier today from a reader who had excitedly received their unabridged audio book of. Why i cannot recommend the infinite jest audio book. My copy of the book is sawn in three, abused, with smudges of food across its pages, from when i couldnt stop. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to come along in. The last man by mary shelley audiobook part 22 old library audiobooks. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup 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. Infinite jest by david foster wallace overdrive rakuten. He is poor tony s father, a surgical doctor who comes home from doing surgeries with lines on his face where his surgical mask sits. Use proceeds from own writing career to open literary foundation. Infinite jest has a reputation for being one of those books that everyone starts and no one finishes. Today, i turned the last page of infinite jest, around a week late for my deadline.
How to read infinite jest chronologically infinite jest. Become novelist and frequently discuss monumental influence of wallace on own work. Beyond the ease with which one can lookup footnotes, consider the following. He smells of old spice a deodorant poor tony is allergic to, and during poor tony s seizure on the train, he imagines his father in his. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and english. Favourite joke in infinite jest im reading infinite jest for the first time and ive come across a joke thats made me laugh out loud for about 5 minutes. Poor tony krause has appeared in the following books. Poor tony krause, a crossdressing junkie and thief who steals a womans exterior heart and kills her, and later robs enfield residents. Every time i drive down melrose near paramount now, i think of poor tony. Infinite jest has been on my reading pile for ages but, despite adoring my recent birthday present of foster wallaces short stories, oblivion, i just havent had the strength of mind to start it. Two years ago, i decided to listen to david foster wallaces infinite jest, a book i. I cant recommend the purchase of the what at first appears to be the amazing ive heard. Crocodile who was a refinisher and fixed table gately cracked.
It has been categorized as an encyclopedic novel and made time magazines list of the 100 best englishlanguage novels published between 1923 and 2005. His character also helps explore addiction in the future, which can really give you an insight into gatelys mind. Before all of this, i used to enjoy studying the way the threads of time connected everything. There are those days, after all, that our poor eyes are simply too strained to take in. Audible provides the highest quality audio and narration. Stephen burns revised david foster wallaces infinite jest. Wallaces particular conceit in infinite jest is that the events described are taking place in the indeterminate future, possibly. It does however refer to how the person was sitting, leaning back. David foster wallace was born in ithaca, new york, in 1962 and raised in illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player.
Page 407 of the 20th anniversary edition, its in the news. Not even the masters of the highlow rhetorical register go higher more panoramically or lower more exuberantly. So infinite jest gets its title from hamletthe melancholy dane meditating on death and remembering poor yorick, the court jester. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness. A readers guide provides a good overview of the novel and includes a chronology, as well as sections on the novels critical. What its like to record the audiobook version of infinite. This makes sense lenz and poor tonys characters both exited relatively early, 100s of pages before the end, and are not mentioned again. Infinite jest by david foster wallace audiobook 17 duration. A utilities page for david foster wallaces novel infinite jest. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that i see it as something faulty, broken, dysfunctional. A multilayered postmodern saga of damnation and salvation. These are the endnotes to david foster wallaces infinite jest, a gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america.
A couple of characters from david foster wallaces novel infinite jest. Download audiobooks narrated by tony jay to your device. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. I joined the infinite summer online group and made sure each morning that, along. Steven asin infinite jest is the perfect book for the kindle paperwhite. Character profile for poor tony krause from infinite jest. I cant recommend the purchase of the what at first appears to be the amazing ive heard good things about the audio, excellent vocal performance audio book of infinite jest. A gargantuan, mindaltering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in america set in an addicts halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwedup family to. For reference while working on the project drew used the ij scene by scene guide, and stephen burns david foster wallaces infinite. Page 407 of the 20th anniversary edition, its in the news headlines that are apart of marios puppet film for interdependence day at the tennis academy.
The audio book club on david foster wallaces infinite jest. Thousands of socially networked bibliophiles have pledged to tackle david foster wallaces infinite jest over three months this summer, endnotes and all, as part of the infinite. Infinite jest audiobook by david foster wallace, read by. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace.
349 959 621 639 1527 403 597 1136 849 603 316 89 1482 1286 671 17 813 1579 1015 1209 1177 784 1539 491 138 839 234 252 1368 1027 297 213 1271 352 1116 574 547