Infinite Jest

A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America

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 renew the idea of what a novel can do.

With a foreword by Tom Bisell.

"The next step in fiction...Edgy, accurate, and darkly witty...Think Beckett, think Pynchon, think Gaddis. Think." --Sven Birkerts, The Atlantic

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Published Nov 13, 2006

1079 pages

Average rating: 6.92

26 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

wheretheheckismyjello
Nov 18, 2025
10/10 stars
What is there to say about this book that hasn't already been said. I mean all the words have already been said IN the book, including the footnotes. Basically, this book is about addiction, and I'm addicted to it and the way it portrays the ways we are obsessed with things on a micro and a macro level. DFW REALLY UNDERSTANDS ME *cries* 10/10 good job, David. Uh...sorry writing one of the greatest novels of all time didn't help you with the depression thing. That sucks. Thanks for writing this before you offed yourself though.
LiziB
Feb 23, 2023
Ok, technically this doesn't count as "read" because I only made it 300 pages in (out of about a thousand)... I do love his writing -- each chapter is like a separate neat little piece -- but it makes me tired. And that far along I felt no confidence that the story would ever take shape.

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