Infinite Jest (30th Anniversary Edition)

De: David Foster Wallace, Michelle Zauner - introduction

Narrado por: 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.

Objects and Knee Meat...

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

Incredible

This version of the audio book is so impressive. Love how they handle the footnotes - it was a touch distracting at first, but you get use to it quickly and I don’t think there is a better way of doing it. The narrator really brought the characters alive. Amazing performance. I was never able to make it through the print version, so happy the audio book was so well done. It’s a life changing novel. It’s worth the effort and time.

Listen to this and you won’t need to read the book

A narration like no other. This book is given a fantastic narration. It is hard to imagine it being any better. The narrator gives a different voicing to each character which makes them immediately recognizable. If you’ve always wanted to read this book, but something about it was holding you back, then this is what you want. What about the story? It’s nonlinear and has multiple points of view. The author had an incredible imagination. When people ask me what it is like I say that you might imagine Charles Dickens on steroids (for the descriptive detail and memorable characters); Kurt Vonnegut (for the fantasy elements); and L. Sterne’s (author of “Tristan Shandy”), for the incredibly comical situations.

Infinite jest

A very long complicated book that was written deliberately, it seems, to confuse and disorient the reader. Turns out the author was something of prescient visionary, who predicted many of the things that were to come in our future, with respect to addiction, entertainment, and communications. It is probably the oddest thing I have ever read/listened to, and certainly the most thought provoking. I suppose the real issue though is that you are left with so many questions and a lack of denouement that one cannot help but think that was part of the point, perhaps a further literary tool used to confuse and disorient the reader.

Amazing performance

I have been listening to The Third Reich and War by Richard J Evans… lo and behold, the same narrator is now telling me how anxious he is about a woman coming to deliver him marijuana.

I bought this at the suggestion of other reviews. The performance is wonderful and making me laugh much more than I remember when I first read this book 15 years ago. I had originally read the book in a very flat, quick voice in my own head. This performance is much livelier, and elevates the audiobook into its own interpretation of the book, almost like a radio play or a movie.

How do they handle the end notes, you ask? They weave them in at the point where they appear in the main body of the book. A different voice announces the number, and a bell rings when the end is over. There is no separate chapter for end notes.

I have just started listening today, but I have read the book before and it is among my favorites. The performance is such a delight that I had to review it now, in hopes that fans of the book like myself will get to experience it anew like I am now.