Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
A massive, mind-bending comedy about finding happiness in America. Infinite Jest explores fundamental questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to dominate our lives, about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with others, and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. It is set in an addicts’ halfway house and a tennis academy and features the most endearingly screwed-up family to appear in recent fiction. Infinite Jest breaks every rule of fiction without ever compromising its inherent entertainment value. It is equal parts philosophical quest and screwball humour.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
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It is one of those rare books that renews the notion of what a novel may do. It is an enthusiastic, distinctly American study of the feelings that make us human. The near future setting of Infinite Jest makes it challenging to summarize. The two main protagonists are. One of them is Hal Incandenza, a top-level tennis player at the age of 17 who attends Enfield Tennis Academy outside of Boston. The other is Don Gately, a counsellor at a halfway house who is in recovery from alcoholism. In a sense, the entire book is about addiction.
The major protagonists are three. privileged white lad Hal Incandenza, 17, attends an exclusive youth tennis program in Massachusetts that his alcoholic father built and that is run by his mother. Hal is a talented and well-regarded tennis prospect who also has drug and smoking addictions. He mentors younger residents, students, and actors in addition to his two siblings, who have key parts. Don Gately, is a 29-year-old employee who lives next to the tennis facility in a halfway house for recovering drug addicts. Don is nine months sober and is in charge of other addicts in recovery. He is overcoming his dependence on downers and his life of crime.
Involved in the political, environmental, and territorial shambles between the United States and Canada is legless Canadian Remy Marathe. The tennis academy, the halfway house, and the governments of the two nations are only three of the story’s many supporting characters. Joelle van Dyne, an important female character, appears. Orin Incandenza, Mario Incandenza, James Incandenza, and Don are all associated with her. She is also a person Remy’s work would be interested in. She is a crack addict and the P.G.O.A.T., or prettiest girl on the planet, due to her remarkable beauty.
