Unendlicher Spaß - Outside of a Dog

Hardcover

Published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH.

ISBN:: 9783462044881

(1 review)

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.

14 editions

The Weaver Reads reviewed Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Triangles and Circles

5 stars

WOW. This book had long been on my to-read list, but I pushed it to the top, as someone mentioned that it helped them cure their depression. It surely didn't do that for me, but it had me reflecting on my own life. There isn't a lot here that's resolved, but it's so easy to get attached to the many, many characters--both "small" and large. I felt most attached to Don Gately, and Mario is one of the single most lovable characters in literature. There's so much here that's unresolved, but it feels a lot like life. The book functions as both a circle and a triangle, but I'll let you read it to get a sense of what I mean by this.

I have more to say on this, and I might just write a post about plateaus and what J. O. Incandenza calls "figurants." Those two concepts, in …

WOW. This book had long been on my to-read list, but I pushed it to the top, as someone mentioned that it helped them cure their depression. It surely didn't do that for me, but it had me reflecting on my own life. There isn't a lot here that's resolved, but it's so easy to get attached to the many, many characters--both "small" and large. I felt most attached to Don Gately, and Mario is one of the single most lovable characters in literature. There's so much here that's unresolved, but it feels a lot like life. The book functions as both a circle and a triangle, but I'll let you read it to get a sense of what I mean by this.

I have more to say on this, and I might just write a post about plateaus and what J. O. Incandenza calls "figurants." Those two concepts, in my reading, are central to the novel.