Essential Novels: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Settle down ladies and gentlemen, I am going to tell you about a novel that rocked my socks off and elevated my standards for fiction ever since I first finished it. A novel about drug and alcohol addiction, dysfunctional families, depression, and dangerous entertainment. I am talking about Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Published in 1996, it is a tremendously complex, staggeringly lengthy (it is just above a thousand pages), and mind-bending book that will leave you an emotional wreck yet begging for more.

While it is impossible to summarize, the novel centers around a movie called Infinite Jest, which inexplicably renders viewers so addicted to it that they are incapable of doing anything other than restarting the movie, they can’t even get up because of how addicted they are, they just lay there with their minds irretrievably lost, watching the movie over and over again. The book is set primarily in an elite tennis academy, and a rehabilitation facility. We get to delve deep into the characters’ psyches and interior worlds, learn what ails them and what they long for. Wallace closely examines our constant need to feel pleasure, how we distract ourselves from ourselves, and our attempts to drown out our inner torment with drugs & entertainment. Think about it, nobody can sit alone quietly with their thoughts and feelings anymore; there is always a need for stimulus, a need for methods to numb the intensity of whatever is afflicting us.

Photo by Ike louie Natividad from Pexels

The book shows Wallace’s unparalleled and virtuosic command of the language as he switches between very different voices, styles, and points of view; he truly is a master of characterization. His deep imaginative empathy as a writer shows in how all of the characters in the book feel real, three-dimensional, and distinct from one another; with even minor characters being very memorable. Wallace also puts his brain power on full display interspersing the book with long philosophical digressions and ruminations about practically everything under the sky; from competitive tennis to film theory to suicidal ideation. 

Readers should also be warned about the endnotes, which have gained a notorious reputation for the aggravation and frustration that they induce. There are over 300 endnotes that you constantly have to flip to the end of the book to read. Sometimes they are meaningless, sometimes they contain very important information for the story and characters, and sometimes in the middle of a sentence, you flip to the end of the book to find an endnote that is an entire chapter. Yes. An entire chapter. And it happens more than once. 

In conclusion, Infinite Jest is one of my all-time favorite books, I find myself constantly revisiting my favorite passages and scenes, sending snapshots of them to my friends. The book’s daunting length and its reputation for being difficult might discourage some potential readers, but I think that it is more than worth the effort and time. So, if you feel like reading a very emotionally powerful & intellectually challenging novel, you can’t go wrong with Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s 1079-page magnum opus.