Listen free for 30 days

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Infinite Jest cover art

Infinite Jest

By: David Foster Wallace
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

David Foster Wallace: In His Own Words cover art
The Pale King cover art
It cover art
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men cover art
Everything Matters! cover art
Consider the Lobster (A Story from Consider the Lobster) cover art
Absalom, Absalom! cover art
Against the Day cover art
The Crying of Lot 49 cover art
Finnegans Wake cover art
A Confederacy of Dunces cover art
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell cover art
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself cover art
The Goldfinch cover art
The Fury cover art
Bad Dreams cover art

Summary

Somewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at the nearby Enfield Tennis Academy are ensnared in the search for the master copy of Infinite Jest, a movie said to be so dangerously entertaining its viewers become entranced and expire in a state of catatonic bliss....

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2008 David Foster Wallace (P)2008 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"A writer of virtuostic talents who can seemingly do anything." (New York Times)

"Wallace is a superb comedian of culture...his exuberance and intellectual impishness are a delight." (James Woods, Guardian)

"One of the best books about addiction and recovery to appear in recent memory." (Sunday Times)

What listeners love about Infinite Jest

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    107
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    95
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    76
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Book, Great Performance, but no End Notes.

Infinite Jest is one of those books that a lot of people know of but have never read. So creating an audiobook version is a no-brainer. Partly since it makes the book more accessible and partly because it lets you enjoy the flow of Wallace's prose. Add to that Sean Pratt does a fantastic job. But be warned: this audiobook has no End Notes. I understand it would be difficult to get them to work in audio format, but the version on Audible US has them, so why can't we? Please Audible, add the end notes, and then this would be perfect.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

55 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

all-important footnotes missing

The all-important footnotes are missing. The preface advises using a printed text to keep track of these. But I bought the Audible edition, not the printed text. The footnotes need to be included somehow. Returning.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Yes - here’s why.

I guess the main point of something like this is to help you decide Should I listen to this or not?

It is long - but then the reader is doing the work for you. And he does a superb job 95% of the time. His tone seems absolutely right generally and he dramatises brilliantly some passages which merit being dramatised.
I can’t say I like everything about Infinite Jest. Parts of it I would describe as mildly entertaining. Parts seem gratuitously disturbing. But it’s not for those parts I recommend you listen to it or read it. The most telling passages are truly bravura pieces of writing which I would be very sorry to have not encountered. Sometimes deeply moving, sometimes very funny, sometimes just spectacularly well observed. Writing of this quality is such a rarity we can’t afford to miss out on it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nice story, wrong format

I loved the book, but the division in chapters is poorly done, so it is a bit hard to follow it sometimes.

the narrator is great!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

too many big words - not for me

it's been a while since i gave up on this, but from what I do remember I had no idea what was going on in the story. things were moving at a snails pace and I found my attention shorting out every few minutes from dullness and over explaining every little detail.

maybe the story is just not of interest to me, maybe there were too many unknown words to keep track of - to the point where some sentences I couldn't even guess what they were getting at. either way the performance was fine since the narrator knew how to pronounce the words at least, but the content was too long and drawn out for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unique and unique gift for the next few years and

I have attached my resume for your reference and hope to hear from you soon as I am currently working on the masters project for the graduate course at St and am currently working on the masters project in St Albans and I have been working with the company for the last three years and I have been working with the company for the last three years and I have been working with the company for the last three years and I have been working with the company for the last two weeks and I have been nominated to post 10 albums in 10 days that had an impact on my life and I have been nominated to post 10 albums in 10 days that had an impact

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Absolute gibberish,

Couldn't have got through another second of this utter and total hog wash. Not recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Truly dreadful

How boring and over promoted. Emperor’s New Clothes or what … Shocking waste of time, don’t bother.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Needs the footnotes

The plot is missing the all important footnotes that help explain the text and give the reader a better understanding of the complex plot. This was a marathon listening that ultimately felt like a wasted investment of my time. Yes, there are flashes of brilliance, but there are also long flabby sections that need a good editor.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly awesome

I don’t want to be a cliche but this book is amazing. It is a bit of a graft but you get out of it what you put into it. The writing is awesome. I loved this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

adbl_uk_web_target_buy_box_sale_test