Infinite Jest
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| Author | David Foster Wallace |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Hysterical realism, satire, tragicomedy, metamodernism, encyclopedic novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
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Publication date
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February 1, 1996 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 1079 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 32738491 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3573.A425635 |
Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a North American dystopia, centering on a junior tennis academy and a nearby substance-abuse recovery center. The novel touches on many topics, including addiction and recovery, suicide, family relationships, entertainment and advertising, film theory, United States-Canada relations (as well as Quebec separatism), and tennis. The novel includes 388 endnotes that cap almost a thousand pages of prose, which, together with its detailed fictional world, have led to its categorization as an encyclopedic novel.
In 2005, it was included by Time magazine in its list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.
Infinite Jest is a literary fiction bestseller, with 44,000 copies sold by the end of its first year of publication. The book has continued to sell steadily and attract critical commentary. As of 2016, worldwide sales of Infinite Jest have exceeded one million copies.
The novel's gestation period was long. Wallace began Infinite Jest, "or something like it", at various times between 1986 and 1989. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive. The book was edited by publisher Little, Brown and Company's Michael Pietsch, who has recalled cutting about 250 manuscript pages.
The novel's title is from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester, Yorick, and says, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!" Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment.
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