In the near future feral hamsters rampage in the mid-west, Canada and the United States form a tense political union fraught with espionage under the governance of a germaphobic ex-lounge singer, years are subsidized, but sports figures are still heroes, depression is still painfully common and addiction still runs rampant. At least in the world created in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.  

At the center of this huge and thematically layered tome is something called, “The Entertainment,” a literally lethal film that captures the undivided attention of anyone who views it – so much so that victims inevitably die of starvation, or wind up in a catatonic state unmotivated by anything other than this particularly moving picture. The U.S government seeks the master copy, as does a group of separatist Quebec terrorists so that they may either control its dissemination or use it to nefarious ends. A wild and woolly plot with plenty of meat and social commentary, this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to this book.

There is the Incandenza family, centered around the young Hal, a tennis prodigy with a marijuana problem. His father, affectionately called “Himself,” turns out to be the very film-maker who created “The Entertainment,” but rather than simply keep the family characters revolving around this very clever plot, Wallace developed and followed the Incandenza family members throughout the book, following their inner lives and tensions in exquisite detail.

Also intertwined is a group of recovering drug addicts, in particular the large if affable ex-burglar Don Gately, who in some ways is the hero of this book. (I won’t tell you why – you have to read it.) Through the various AA and NA attendees that are followed throughout the book, Wallace artfully uses narrative to explore the reason cliches, rather than being dismissed as trite, should be looked at a little more closely.

One of my personal favorites, I have read this daunting volume four times, and have found in it, each time, something new to marvel at and ponder. This 1996 novel has been called the book of its generation, defining the modern age that few novels throughout history have been able to do. To say that David Foster Wallace is missed after his suicide by hanging on September 13th, 2008 is a huge understatement, at least for me.

In spring of 2010, Little Brown will be releasing the unfinished work, “The Pale King.” So if you are one of the many who bought Infinite Jest but never got around to reading it, do yourself a favor and begin the journey. It might take one to three months to finish it, but reads like this are a fine, rare thing for serious bookworms. Like dark chocolate, Infinite Jest begs you to indulge.