It grapples directly with ultimate questionsquestions of lifes meaning and of the value of work and societythrough characters imagined. The novel is presented as a 999line poem titled pale fire, written by the fictional poet john shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index written by shades neighbor and academic colleague, charles kinbote. You move through it as if through some mildly phantasmagorical. And then i plan to give up when i get close to the end. The book seemed to be about halfway through, judging by the fact that wallace said to his editor something to the effect of im working on something really huge. Michael pietsch, points out that the books are haphazardly written.
Apr 14, 2020 the pale king remained unfinished at the time of david foster wallaces death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything wallace ever undertook. How does the pale king stack up to other david foster wallace. The pale king is david foster wallaces final novel a testament to his enduring brilliance the internal revenue service regional examination centre in peoria, illinois, 1985. I probably should have just borrowed brief interviews though, youre right. I live in a city with one of the best book stores in the us and its a fuckin sirens call man. He succeeds, profoundly, and the rest of the book s intellectual content is gravy. The pale king is composed of parts of the something long on which 46yearold david foster wallace was working before he hanged. The underlying bureaucratic key to survival is the ability to deal with boredom.
It grapples directly with ultimate questions questions of lifes meaning and of the value of work and society through characters. John self, of the stellar literary blog the asylum also wrote in to express his skepticism. The pale king doesnt go in for understatement either or charm for that matter. Revolving around the world of the irs the us tax office the pale king is fundamentally a book about boredom. For over 500 pages, this novel deals with the endless tedium of the modern worker. I was just beginning to get a real sense of the characters and the inner machinations of the irs when the book ended. An unfinished novel is a ghost, a fixed phantom of an idea the moment the words hit the page. Pale king and the lost voice of david foster wallace may 2, 2011 10. Together these elements form a narrative in which both fictional authors are central characters. The editor michael pietsch needed an excel spreadsheet to piece together the notebooks that made up the pale king, a posthumous novel from david foster wallace. David foster wallace, the pale king if a novel about irs examiners in a midwest regional examination center seems like a bad pitch, and definitely a boring novel, you will have almost grasped about onehalf the magic of dfw. How does the pale king stand, for being a book that isnt finished. Apr 01, 2011 although the pale king was pieced together by wallaces editor michael pietsch from pages and notes that the author left behind when he committed suicide in 2008, it feels less like an.
Books blog the shadow over david foster wallaces the pale king. I didnt feel like i had the liberty to edit his words without him there to respond to them. David was a perfectionist of the highest order, and there is no question that the pale king would be vastly different had he survived to finish it. It was planned as wallaces third novel, and the first since infinite jest in 1996, but it was not completed at the time of his death. To function effectively in an environment that precludes everything vital and human. To me, it seems like a start of a larger work, that sadly he didnt finish. The pale king by david foster wallace little, brown and company. This is a fairly precise summary of the pale kingif you take nothing actually happens to mean an absence of recognizable character arcs. Yes, parts are difficult, but boring never comes into it. Although the pale king was pieced together by wallaces editor michael pietsch from pages and notes that the author left behind when he committed suicide in 2008, it feels less like. We go behind the scenes with the team that produced and recorded david foster wallaces posthumously published.
Michael pietsch in the editors note for the pale king. Like the last few cigarettes in the pack before another attempt to quit, im making the the pale king last. Apr 11, 2012 in this way, the argument tracks with one made by the fictional narrator of the pale kingwho is named, in a pomo fillip, david wallaceand who observes in chapter 9 how potentially. You move through it as if through some mildly phantasmagorical gallery, making your own connections as you wander along. In a short twopage chapter 44, one of the characters sums it all up. That may sound morbid, but its impossible to read david foster wallaces the pale king without feeling a little morbid. David foster wallaces posthumous novel, the pale king, is the most anticipated work of fiction in 2011. It grapples directly with questions of lifes meaning and of the ultimate value of work and family. One of the saddest and most lovely books ive ever read. You cant read the pale king, david foster wallaces final novel, without thinking of the authors death. Times festival of books panel about the late author david foster wallace, editor and publisher michael pietsch of little, brown wore the expression of a man whos been near greatness, but at a harrowing cost.
Works like the pale king show how far the publishing world will go in creating an artificial pearl around the bits of grit that a novelist leaves. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read the pale king. The pale king by david foster wallace librarything. As kevin crosby notes, the pale king is only mentioned as the nickname of the predecessor of dewitt glendenning, jr. The provisional nature of the pale king adds to this montagelike effect. Although the pale king was pieced together by wallaces editor michael pietsch from pages and notes that the author left behind when he committed suicide in 2008, it feels less like an. This time im reading the pale king in fits and starts, in bits and pieces. The pale king is a work that, as expected, only further proves david foster wallaces genius. The pale king is a novel assembled from a large collection of fragments left by the author after his untimely and tragic death in 2008. According to the editors note at the beginning of the book there was no synopsis or outline of the novel as a whole and months of work were needed to attempt to put together a novel that approached what may have been. Goodreads members who liked the pale king also liked. Where dfw was going to take the pale king is anyones guess. The entire novel felt like an incredibly long winded but compelling introduction.
The pale king by david foster wallace, paperback barnes. Pizza hut to donate thousands of pizzas and books to students. According to the editors note at the beginning of the book there was no synopsis or outline of the novel as a whole and months of work were needed to attempt to put together a novel that approached what may have been foster wallaces intentions. Apr 15, 2011 the pale king, david foster wallaces posthumous, unfinished novel is a study in ambiguity, anchored in the trivial precision of personal statistical descriptions and the apparent precision of the internal revenue serviceaccountingfinancial analysis particulars. Most of the time the unfinished novel published posthumously after wallaces 2008 death is a. Apr 15, 2011 the pale king doesnt go in for understatement either or charm for that matter. Blissasecondbysecond joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, consciouslies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Separating wallaces backstory from the novel might be impossible, but the edited text, however incomplete, astonishes. Like much of wallaces work, the novel defies straightforward summary. Given the length and scope of infinite jest, the pale king could have been even longer and larger in scale. The agents at the irs regional examination center in peoria, illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee david foster wallace.
But in linking its exploration of tedium to the rarefied world of taxes, it. The pale king what does it take to bring a book to audio. The pale king, david foster wallaces posthumous, unfinished novel is a study in ambiguity, anchored in the trivial precision of personal statistical descriptions and the apparent precision of the internal revenue serviceaccountingfinancial analysis particulars fittingly, the april 15 publication date of the pale king corresponds to the due date for federal individual tax. The 20 best pandemic books to read during coronavirus. Read some of the great, giant books of all time, including titles by thomas pynchon. Here the minutaie of a million daily lives are totted up, audited and accounted for. Despite its shattered state and its unpromising subject matter, or possibly because of them, the pale king represents wallaces finest work as a novelist the pale king is imperfect, but it feels more like the work of a human being than infinite jest does.
The pale king is a collection of disparate fragments of writing rather than any sort of coherent novel. The pale king represents wallaces effort, through humor, digression and oldfashioned character study, to represent irs agentsas not merely souled, but complexly so. The pale king by david foster wallace kindle ebook. Overall i would say if you liked infinite jest then youll like the pale king but i would. What is the significance of the title of the pale king. It grapples directly with ultimate questionsquestions of lifes meaning and of the value of work and societythrough characters.
A few pages at a time, a few minutes at a time, and in no particular order. The pale king begins with an editors note in which the editor. In the process of writing the novel he came to call the pale king, he laid out its central tenet in one of his notebooks. The pale king remained unfinished at the time of wallaces death, but it is a deeply intriguing and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything wallace ever undertook. In this way, the argument tracks with one made by the fictional narrator of the pale kingwho is named, in a pomo fillip, david wallaceand who observes in. Honestly, i feel like if hed lived to finish it, the pale king would have been even better than infinite jest. The pale king ebook written by david foster wallace. If you like the pale king you might like similar books oblivion, infinite jest, brief interviews with hideous men, consider the lobster and other essays, the david foster wallace reader. The book was an unfinished novel written by david foster wallace and found by his wife after his death. But like infinite jest it depicts an america in thrall to myopic. David foster wallace reads from the pale king and incarnations of burned children 12 2000. Jan 18, 2016 david foster wallace reads from the pale king and incarnations of burned children 12 2000.
You can feel the great relish king took in burning it all. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the irs are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The manuscript was by no means a coherent, complete piece of work and as we learn from the introduction to the pale king, michael pietsch, dfws editor, had to sift through the debris in an attempt to join the dots. The pale king remained unfinished at the time of david foster wallaces death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything wallace ever undertook. If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller. But the posthumously published the pale king presents david foster. The pale king is a novel of the internal revenue service. The provisional nature of the pale king adds to this montage like effect.
When david foster wallace took his own life in 2008, he left behind an unfinished novel, the pale king, that will either serve to round out his transcendent body of writing or place a. The pale king and over 8 million other books are available for amazon kindle. The magic of david foster wallaces unfinished king. But in linking its exploration of tedium to the rarefied world of taxes, it opens itself to a very particular set.
Find books like the pale king from the worlds largest community of readers. How odd i can have all this inside me and to you its just words. The pale kings narrator is a version of wallace, a fictionalized. David foster wallace and the pale king the new york times.
The pale king is an unfinished novel by david foster wallace, published posthumously on april 15, 2011. The pale king was left as a neat pile of papers as a final gift by dfw to his wife karen. Buy a cheap copy of the pale king book by david foster wallace. The pale king is an unfinished novel by david foster wallace, published posthumously on.
The shadow over david foster wallaces the pale king. David wallace disappears 100 pages in 112712 david was a perfectionist of the highest order, and there is no question that the pale king would be vastly different had he survived to finish it. Why i wont be finishing the pale king thought catalog. Apr 15, 2011 the pale king is composed of parts of the something long on which 46yearold david foster wallace was working before he hanged himself at his home in claremont on sept. Shen comes a new, emotional standalone about first love, second chances, and overcoming breathtaking losses at a young age. Mar 15, 2011 you cant read the pale king, david foster wallaces final novel, without thinking of the authors death. Apparently, he found an unfinished manuscript that was mostly noted with bits of stories written, but he plans on putting all of it together and publishing it. Apr 10, 2012 the pale king is very funny, darkly funny. I should also point out that, after two attempts, i never finished infinite jest. Before his suicide in 2008, wallace organized the manuscript and associated computer files in a place where they would be found by his widow. In one of the notes at the end of david foster wallaces incomplete novel the pale king, the author writes, plot a series of setups for stuff happening, but nothing actually happens. Apr 09, 2011 the editor michael pietsch needed an excel spreadsheet to piece together the notebooks that made up the pale king, a posthumous novel from david foster wallace.