first edition
1996 · Boston
by Wallace, David Foster
Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1996. First edition. Near Fine/Near Fine. A Near Fine copy in like dust jacket, with discoloration from publisher's glue on the front endpaper (as always). Top-edge of the text block a bit spotted. Jacket nearly Fine with no chips or tears. First state with the "Vollman" misprint on the rear panel.
"Infinite Jest is more or less evenly split between the story of the Incandenza family, dysfunctional proprietors of a tennis academy, and that of the residents of a halfway house for addicts, separated from their luckier counterparts by 'a tall and more or less denuded hill.' One houses America's winners; the other, its losers. The two groups rarely interact, and the sections of the book dedicated to them differ in tone: the first is more comic, the second more realist, even heart-string-pulling. The unique feel of the novel comes from this juxtaposition...but what may be most special about it is its experimental quality. Infinite Jest is a novel about the narcotic power of language" (The New Yorker). Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. (Inventory #: 6172)
"Infinite Jest is more or less evenly split between the story of the Incandenza family, dysfunctional proprietors of a tennis academy, and that of the residents of a halfway house for addicts, separated from their luckier counterparts by 'a tall and more or less denuded hill.' One houses America's winners; the other, its losers. The two groups rarely interact, and the sections of the book dedicated to them differ in tone: the first is more comic, the second more realist, even heart-string-pulling. The unique feel of the novel comes from this juxtaposition...but what may be most special about it is its experimental quality. Infinite Jest is a novel about the narcotic power of language" (The New Yorker). Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. (Inventory #: 6172)