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Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest AuthorDavid Foster WallaceCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishGenrePublisherLittle, Brown and CompanyFebruary 1, 1996Media typePrint (hardcover · paperback)Pages1,079ISBN978-0-316-92004-9813/.54 20LC ClassPS3573.A425635
Infinite Jest is a novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. The novel has an unconventional narrative structure and includes hundreds of extensive endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.

Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, Infinite Jest is featured in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.

A literary fiction bestseller after having sold 44,000 hardcover copies in its first year of publication, the novel has since sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Plot
There are several major interwoven narratives, including:

A fringe group of Qu�b�cois radicals, Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (English: The Wheelchair Assassins; A.F.R.), plans a violent geopolitical coup, and is opposed by high-level US operatives.
Various residents of the Boston area reach "rock bottom" with their substance abuse problems, and enter a residential drug and alcohol recovery program where they progress in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
Students train and study at an elite tennis academy run by James and Avril Incandenza and Avril's adopted brother Charles Tavis.
The history of the Incandenza family unfolds, focusing on the youngest son, Hal.
These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest, also called "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film is so entertaining that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die. It was James Incandenza's final work. He completed it during a period of sobriety that was insisted upon by its lead actress, Joelle Van Dyne. The Quebecois separatists seek a replicable master copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (O.U.S.) aims to intercept the master copy to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations, or else to find or produce an anti-entertainment that can counter the film's effects. Joelle seeks treatment for substance abuse problems at Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House. A.F.R. member (and possible O.U.S. double agent) Marathe visits Ennet House, aiming to find Joelle and a lead to the master copy of "the Entertainment".

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