num_pages: 1088
description: A gargantuan, mind-altering tragi-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.
language: English
title: Infinite Jest
titlecomplete: Infinite Jest
characters: Hugh Steeply, Harriet Bonk-Green, Lyle, Avril Incandenza, Mario Incandenza, Hal Incandenza, Dr. James Orin Incandenza, LaMont Chu, Clenette Henderson, Joelle Van Dyne, Bruce Green, Remy Marathe, Pat Montesian, Randy Lenz, Dr. Charles Tavis, Michael Pemulis, Geoffrey Day, Gerhardt Schtitt, Mildred L. Bonk, Tiny Ewell, Ann Kittenplan, Ken Erdedy, Emil Minty, Orin Incandenza, Ortho Stice, Katherine Ann Gompert, Trevor Axford, Poor Tony Krause, Ted Schacht, Jim Troelsch, Donald W. Gately
genres: American, Unfinished, Philosophy, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, Fiction, Contemporary, Humor
ratings_count: 89157
places: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Enfield Tennis Academy, Ennet House, Massachusetts, Tucson, Arizona, Boston, Massachusetts
awards: awardedAt: 1609488000000
name: Tähtivaeltaja Award, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: LovelyBooks Leserpreis
category: Allgemeine Literatur
publisher: Back Bay Books