Explore the real places in Los Angeles that appear in Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Enfield Tennis Academy (Real-World Counterpart: Weston Area), Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (Real-World Counterpart: Brighton Hillside), Boston Common, Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Halls of Boston (Church Basements), Harvard Square and 5 more.
Enfield, MA — Hilltop academy modeled on a Boston suburb
Enfield Tennis Academy, founded by James O. Incandenza, trains elite junior players such as Hal Incandenza, Orin's younger brother, and Michael Pemulis, who runs the school's illicit schemes. Coaches like Gerhardt Schtitt and Lyle, the weight room guru, shape the students. The academy sits on a hill above the Enfield Marine Public Health Hospital and its grounds. Hal's dread, drug secrets, and the Eschaton game all unfold here.
The academy is fictional. Wallace based it on the elite tennis camps of the Midwest and the Boston suburbs, and the wooded hilltop settings of institutions around Weston and Newton. Weston is a wealthy town west of Boston with substantial private estates and school campuses.
Weston is a residential suburb with conservation land and private schools. There is no real Enfield Tennis Academy, so the area is best experienced by driving through the suburb itself.
Brighton, MA — Addicts' halfway house at the foot of the hill
Ennet House is the halfway house where Don Gately, a former Demerol addict and burglar, works as a live-in staffer. Residents like Joelle Van Dyne, Kate Gompert, and Geoffrey Day struggle with AA's slogans and the daily grind of recovery. Pat Montesian runs the house with Gately and Johnette Foltz. The house's low-key world contrasts sharply with the tennis academy's elite striving.
Ennet House is fictional but based on real halfway houses Wallace encountered while in recovery in the Boston area. Brighton is a working-class and student neighborhood of Boston that has hosted many recovery and social service facilities.
Brighton's hillside is a dense residential area of triple-deckers and apartments. Ennet House is not an actual building, so there is nothing to visit specifically.
Beacon Street — Central city park setting for several episodes
Boston is the broader stage for the novel's recovery scenes, and its public spaces turn up in the daily travels of characters like Don Gately and Joelle Van Dyne. Residents and staffers cross the city by foot and by T. The city's grim winters and the long walks between meetings are part of the book's texture.
Boston Common, established in 1634, is the oldest public park in the United States. It has served as a cow pasture, a military camp, and a site for public gatherings and speeches.
The Common is a busy public park with the Frog Pond, walking paths, and the Boston Common Visitor Information Center. It anchors the Freedom Trail.
Visit: Boston Common (park)
Greater Boston — Where Gately and Ennet residents attend meetings
Don Gately and the Ennet residents attend the Boston AA meetings in church basements and community rooms, where members share clichés and hard truths. Wallace renders the folksy slogans as both ridiculous and life-saving. Gately's struggle to remain sober while holding secrets drives much of the later narrative.
Boston has a long history with Alcoholics Anonymous, with the fellowship growing in the 1940s and 50s. Wallace himself attended meetings in Boston after entering a recovery program in the late 1980s.
Boston hosts hundreds of AA meetings weekly in churches, community centers, and hospitals. These are private recovery gatherings and not tourist sites.
Cambridge — Setting for the novel's intellectual and student life
Harvard Square represents the academic world that orbits the novel's Boston setting. Hal Incandenza's father James O. Incandenza had an academic bent, and the family's circle includes professors and scholars. The Square's bookstores and cafés echo the intellectual and cultural appetite that the novel both mocks and admires.
Harvard Square grew around Harvard College, founded in 1636. It became a hub for bookstores, theaters, and cafés in the 20th century.
Harvard Square is a lively pedestrian district with bookstores, restaurants, street performers, and the Harvard campus nearby. Visitors can tour Harvard Yard.
Visit: Harvard Square (landmark)
Cambridge — Tech culture and the Incandenza family's academic ties
MIT appears in the novel as part of the scientific and technical world linked to James O. Incandenza, an optics expert and filmmaker. His work with lenses and film informs the creation of the lethal Entertainment cartridge. The institution reflects the novel's concerns with technology, obsession, and consumption.
MIT was founded in 1861 and moved to Cambridge in 1916. It has been a center of science and engineering research throughout the 20th century.
MIT's campus is open to visitors, and the MIT Museum features exhibits on science and technology. The campus includes notable architecture and public art.
Visit: MIT Museum (museum)
Boston — River path for running and city views
Characters in the Boston sections traverse the city's riverbanks and streets, and the Charles River is a recurring backdrop to the area's geography. The long walks and runs mirror the repetitive discipline of both tennis training and recovery.
The Esplanade was created in the early 20th century along the Charles River Basin after the construction of the dam. It was designed by landscape architects to provide public riverfront space.
The Esplanade is a popular public park with paths for walking, running, and cycling, and hosts the Hatch Shell, home of the Boston Pops July 4th concerts.
Visit: Charles River Esplanade (park)
Chelsea, MA — Hospital where Gately recovers and the story converges
The Enfield Marine Public Health Hospital is where Don Gately lies after being shot, drifting in and out of consciousness while haunted by the wraith of James O. Incandenza. The hospital scenes close the book's long arc of suffering and endurance. Gately's silent ordeal, refusing painkillers to protect his sobriety, becomes the novel's most moving portrait of recovery.
The hospital is fictional, but Boston area sites like the Chelsea Naval Hospital served maritime and military populations. Chelsea has a long history as a port and hospital location.
Chelsea is a dense urban city across the Mystic River from Boston. The former naval hospital grounds have been redeveloped for housing and other uses.
700 Boylston Street — Books, reading, and the city's literary heart
The novel's obsession with reading, footnotes, and consumption of language finds a natural home in Boston's great library. While not a specific scene location, it embodies the intellectual culture in which the Incandenza family and Ennet residents live. Hal, the voracious reader and lexical prodigy, would feel at home among its stacks.
The McKim Building of the Boston Public Library opened in 1895. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States and is known for its Renaissance Revival architecture.
The library is open to the public, with reading rooms, a courtyard, art exhibits, and architectural tours. The grand Bates Hall is a highlight.
Visit: Boston Public Library (library)
4 Jersey Street — Boston's iconic ballpark and sporting culture
Sports culture saturates the novel, from the tennis academy's brutal regimen to the obsessions of its characters. Boston's sporting landmarks reflect the region where athletic striving and entertainment collide. The city's love for its teams parallels the novel's meditation on devotion and distraction.
Fenway Park opened in 1912 and is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball. It is home to the Boston Red Sox and known for the Green Monster wall.
Fenway Park hosts baseball games and offers guided tours year-round. The surrounding Fenway neighborhood has many bars and restaurants.
Visit: Fenway Park (tour)
More by David Foster Wallace: All David Foster Wallace books
More novels set in Boston: Browse all Boston books on Map A Story
Other nearby maps: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood locations map · Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin locations map · The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne locations map · Mystic River by Dennis Lehane locations map