There are several major interwoven narratives, including: On the orders of US President Johnny Gentle (a 'clean freak' who campaigned on the platform of cleaning up the US while ensuring that no American would be caused any discomfort in the process), much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a giant hazardous waste dump, an area 'given' to Canada and known as the 'Great Concavity' by Americans due to the resulting displacement of the border.

Although the narrative is fragmented and spans several 'named' years, most of the story takes place during 'The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment' (Y.D.A.U.). Ĭorporations are allowed the opportunity to bid for and purchase naming rights for each calendar year, replacing traditional numerical designations with ostensibly honorary monikers bearing corporate names. In the novel's future world, the United States, Canada, and Mexico together compose a unified North American superstate known as the Organization of North American Nations, or O.N.A.N. Wallace's working title for Infinite Jest was A Failed Entertainment. The novel gets its name from Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, in which Hamlet holds the skull of the court jester, Yorick, and says, 'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!' He resisted many changes for reasons that he usually explained. He accepted cuts amounting to around 250 manuscript pages from his original submission. Pietsch made suggestions and recommendations to Wallace, but every editing decision was Wallace's. The book was edited by publisher Little, Brown and Company's Michael Pietsch. įrom early 1992 until the novel's publication, excerpts from various drafts appeared sporadically in magazines and literary journals including Harvard Review, Grand Street, Conjunctions, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Harper's Magazine, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. His efforts in 1991–92 were more productive. Wallace began Infinite Jest, 'or something like it', at various times between 19. The novel has an unconventional narrative structure and includes hundreds of extensive endnotes, some with footnotes of their own.Ī 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.

Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, Infinite Jest is featured in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 19.

Infinite Jest is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace.

Infinite jest first edition