Infinite Jest (30th Anniversary Edition)

By: David Foster Wallace, Michelle Zauner - introduction

Narrated by: Sean Pratt, Michelle Zauner

The 30th anniversary edition of the virtuosic, wickedly comic modern classic about the pursuit of happiness in America, with a new foreword written and read by Michelle Zauner, author of the New York Times bestselling sensation Crying in H Mart.

“To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one; this is the other.” —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

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 renews the idea of what a novel can do.

“Uproarious ... Infinite Jest shows off Wallace as one of the big talents of his generation, a writer … who can seemingly do anything.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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

One of Time magazine’s “100 Best Novels” (1923—2005)

Publishers note: This unabridged audiobook edition includes all footnotes, signaled by a brief chime, and read in sequence throughout the main text as part of the full immersive listening experience.

Wonderful in audio

I couldn’t imagine this in audio but narrator did an amazing job, with DFW long sentences and great wordplay. Narrator was smooth and really brought IJ to life in unexpected ways.
IJ one of my favorite books. This makes my 5th reading as it’s so dense & not easy to hold & read such a heavy book that you also can’t put down.
I’d put this audio version over reading it first for its clarity and excellence overall. You can follow along with the book to get into the longer footnotes and not get lost.
Amazing job. Kudos to narrator and production team.

Objects and Knee Meat...

Brando, Jim, Jesus, B-r-a-n-d-o. Brando the new archetypal tough-guy rebel and slob type...

Read along with the audiobook

I'm not someone who has a degree in literature or any fine arts. I've never considered myself as someone who devours literature. I'm just your regular casual reader. I purchased a physical copy of Infinite Jest without knowing anything about the book. I was feeling confident that I was enjoying reading so much this winter that I wanted to take on a longer challenge. A friend had sent me a video of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech, "This is Water," I thought this might be a good time to check out his written work.

About 130 pages or so into Infinite Jest, I hated it. I didn't get it. I had trouble parsing through all the details accompanying every scene. I stalled on words I didn't know how to pronounce or what they meant. There were too many abbreviations. I got tired of flipping to footnotes and being marginally more informed about the context. I couldn't do 800 more pages of this. It was a slog. I started looking for another book to get my reading momentum back.

I set the book aside for a day or two and thought, Maybe I should restart and try listening to the audiobook while reading. So I signed up for an Audible account and selected Infinite Jest as my book for the month, and away I went.

I've never gone from hating a book to loving it so much as I did Infinite Jest, and this would've never happened without the beautiful narration by Sean Pratt. His energy, his accents, and his tone are perfect throughout. And get this...he reads the full version of abbreviations when the reader might not have enough context to know what they stand for. The audiobook had me engaged for every single page. Turns out this book really IS funny. And it's devastating. And it's witty. And it's heartbreaking. And all the details that take up several pages in describing a scene ARE necessary. I sort of discovered that I'm not the type of person who can extract these sorts of things in a silent reading of the book. I need to be read to like a child.

Reading along with the audiobook was perfect for me. Aside from bringing color and texture to the story, the audiobook did two things for me. 1) I was able to plan ahead and schedule time for how long I was going to read and come to a reasonable stopping point. This helped slow down my reading, and I wasn't just trying to speed-run Infinite Jest just to get it over with. 2) The audiobook helped me sustain reading momentum when I reached for a glass or checked the clock or felt I needed to rub my eyes. The story kept moving in audio form. Sean Pratt's narration flows very smoothly, and the little micro-distractions that sometimes interrupt my reading were no longer relevant.

So if you're like me and have trouble unraveling the complexities of this novel, try reading along with the audiobook. I have a newfound appreciation for postmodern/metamodern literature.

Genuinely the best literary experience

Great narration, masterpiece book, and they added the footnotes! This version is basically perfect, it makes reading IJ much easier.

The most epic story of all time

5th time enjoying this. It gets better every single time. Truly a masterpiece. So complex and interesting. I could live in this world forever.