His latest offering, infinite jest, has been moving toward us like an ocean. But the emergent figure of gately wounded, desperate, but able to find and give loveallows infinite jest to work as a postmodern saga of damnation and salvation. Wallace wrote to a friend that the fuckers cut by 600 pages from the first version. Infinite jest is a 1996 novel by american writer david foster wallace.
Central to this narrative is one don gately, a recovering burglar and. Infinite jest is also sort of about don gately, part character part recoveringdrugaddictauthoravatar. Tom bissell and the editor michael pietsch discuss infinite jest. Gately is a livein resident assistant at bostons enfield house drug and alcohol recovery house sic. A novel 1,079 pages long is not the best one to start reading on a dare. In infinite jest, don gately, a former opiates addict, finds himself in. David foster wallaces massive novel infinite jest the number one book you pretend to. Available on kindle ebook and can be read on any device with the free kindle. Is there no ending to infinite book because there couldnt be. Reading david foster wallaces latest novel, infinite jest, i couldnt help thinking at times about 7yearold seymour glasss book length letter home from camp, published in the new. Buy infinite jest 01 by foster wallace, david isbn. While i cant read the book not even the end notes for you, i.
Life and how to live it don gately and infinite jest. Reading david foster wallaces latest novel, infinite jest, i couldnt. The point is, if infinite jest really is the best novel theyve ever read, thats a. Once hailed as a work of singular genius, time has not been kind to the groundbreaking infinite jest, as paul ring discovers while reading david foster wallaces novel 20 years on. The marathon of infinite jest the american writers museum. The chief counsellor at the halfway house, and one of the novels main protagonists, is don gately. The end of the tour is based on david lipskys book that records the week he spent with wallace in 1996 while he was publicising infinite jest, when dfws fame was at. Why david foster wallace should not be worshipped as a. Its set in ennet house, a boston rehab facility where don gately, the books hero, is a livein staff member.
Wallace taught creative writing at emerson college, illinois state university, and pomona college, and published the story collections girl with curious hair, brief interviews with hideous men, oblivion, the essay collections a supposedly fun thing ill never do again, and consider the lobster. The two groups rarely interact, and the sections of the book. But the emergent figure of gatelywounded, desperate, but able to find and give loveallows infinite jest to work as a postmodern saga of damnation and salvation. The lengthy and complex work takes place in a semiparodic future version of north america. Infinite jest 1996 is a novel written by david foster wallace. While i don t actually have a favorite book or song, or album, or band, or film, or painting, or sexual position, or any other category of things that contain more than one equally great contender infinite jest is the first book that immediately comes to mind when the idea of my favorite book arises. Infinite jest is a novel about the narcotic power of languagea power so overwhelming that wallace has to shred narrative into tiny strips to keep it under control.
His second novel, infinite jest, was published in 1996. Max revisits david foster wallaces infinite jest twenty years after its publication. Reading infinite jest after a year on the wagon paste. The novel is widely noted for its unconventional narrative structure and its experimental use of endnotes there are 388 endnotes, some with footnotes of their own. On a primal level, the motive behind completing infinite jest is probably different than most commercial fiction. Heres how i finally read infinite jest and how you can, too. Don gately a former thief and demerol addict, and current counselor in residence at the ennet house. One of the novels primary characters, gately is physically enormous, an avid alcoholics anonymous member, and intricately though not obviously connected to both the enfield tennis academy and the international struggle to seize the master copy of the entertainment. The infinite jest quotes below are all either spoken by don gately or refer to don gately.
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