Product Description

'A visionary, a craftsman, a comedian and as serious as it is possible to be without accidentally writing a religious text. He can do anything with a piece of prose, and it is a humbling experience to see him go to work on what has passed up till now as "modern fiction". He's so modern he's in a different time-space continuum from the rest of us. Goddamn him' Zadie Smith The mysterious disappearance of her great- grandmother and twenty-five other elderly inmates from a Shaker Heights nursing home has left Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman emotionally stranded on the edge of the Great Ohio Desert. But that is simply one problem of many for the hapless switchboard operator, seriously compounded by her ongoing affair with boss Rick Vigorous; the TV stardom of her talking cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler; and other minor catastrophes that threaten to elevate Lenore's search for love and self-detemination to new heights of spasmodic weirdness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34632 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 467 pages

Review
'Daring...hilarious...enigmatic...wonderfully odd... a zany picaresque adventure of contemporary America run amok' NEW YORK TIMES 'Dazzling...exhilarating...bizarre...sweepingly successful...engaging and haunting... a remarkable book with lots of prestidigitation in it... Wallace's talent is consistently impressive' SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

About the Author
David Foster Wallace is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Award for Fiction, the Paris Review's Aga Kahn Prize and John Train Prize for Humour, and the O. Henry Award. He lives in downstate Illinois.

Customer Reviews

Contemporary cultural commentary at its strongest
Put quite simply, David Foster Wallace is one of our strongest living authors. If you are daunted by the length and detail of the gigantic Infinite Jest (and you've every right to be) this funny, perceptive and enlightening novel is an excellent place to start.

Wallace follows on from the likes of Don De Lillo by crafting an entertaining story that also provides a critique of our (post)modern age. His unique talent is to pinpoint aspects of life that we are no longer receptive to and inject a healthy element of the bizarre to into a story of underlying tenderness.

In this case, the dust-jacket synopsis is true in every detail. This book will open your eyes, make you laugh and teach you about Wittgenstein, all through the vernacular.

A rare achievement, very highly recommended.