The Pale King
The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions--questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society--through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time.
How odd I can have all this inside me and to you its just words. 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 one-half the magic of DFW. This is absolutely a novel about boredom, tedium, loneliness, isolation, bureaucracy, melancholy, and depression. Did I also mention this book is damn funny and absurd? I giggled at parts. I cried at parts. I
Well, wow. What an epic, wondrous book. I felt a breathless clarity, exhaustive elation, and all-over giddiness reading The Pale Kinga feeling unsurpassed in the overlong Infinite Jest (which could lose 300+ pages easily), the often wilfully opaque stories in Oblivion, or the CPU-on-speed attack of his floating eye essays. Might this have been (or be) the perfect distillation of all Foster Wallaces talents? All his strengths are here, in full bloomhis dizzying insights into the microbial
B.I. #? 04-11 'Well, I was going to suppress the urge to do it this way, but it seemed fitting. Not just in that meta-gimmicky way, but like a sort of homage. Because I genuinely do love the man and his writing, which is not the sort of sentiment that I usually feel toward most fiction writers that I admire.' Q. 'Okay, maybe love isn't the right word. More like a relatable connection. Like listening to that Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth, and thinking about Reznor's substance abuse problem,
well, first off, whew! it has been entirely, inexplicably, unforgivably too long since i've read a new book! what the hell happened? the end of 2011 was terribly shitty in pretty much every sense, and 2012 has been wholly consumed getting zee komputerkorp up off the ground (i've got a company that makes computers...or a computer that makes companies...i forget the details). so, what have we here?chapter 46's long paean to aspergery goodness could have been pretty much lifted from any number of
This could've, had Wallace lived to see it through, exceeded even Infinite Jest. Yes, IJ is my favorite novel, and it's hard for me to imagine anything topping that, but the potential was here. See, for all of DFW's second novel's many virtues, it's a very self-conscious novel. You can tell that Wallace wanted it to be an encyclopedic account of human existence, and while 1,079 pages is a lot, I don't think it's enough to do what Wallace wanted to do. He wanted to make literary history with it,
The Goodreads gods are jerks.***Dear Goodreads gods, If I win the First Reads giveaway for this book, my entire life will have meaning. Every book I've ever read, and every review I've ever written, will have led me to this crowning moment. I've even created a new shelf just for The Pale King: to-read-immediately. I promise to neglect every other aspect of my life, including my dog and my boyfriend and my work, to read this when it comes.PLEASE GIVE ME THIS BOOK PLEASE?Sincerely yours,oriana
David Foster Wallace
Hardcover | Pages: 548 pages Rating: 3.95 | 14716 Users | 1829 Reviews
Be Specific About Books Toward The Pale King
Original Title: | The Pale King |
ISBN: | 0316074233 (ISBN13: 9780316074230) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Fiction (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2011) |
Ilustration In Favor Of Books The Pale King
The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. 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 Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions--questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society--through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time.
Itemize Regarding Books The Pale King
Title | : | The Pale King |
Author | : | David Foster Wallace |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 548 pages |
Published | : | April 15th 2011 by Little, Brown & Company |
Categories | : | Fiction. Novels. Contemporary. Literature. Literary Fiction |
Rating Regarding Books The Pale King
Ratings: 3.95 From 14716 Users | 1829 ReviewsJudgment Regarding Books The Pale King
When someone says something is "universal" I don't always feel like it quite applies to me, or it is some big cliche to describe just what people are used to. The big stuff like young love, birth, taking a crap, death. Sure, that's all universal and it happens to everyone (maybe not young love). Still, I don't think it's a word that I hop to and use to describe stuff like we're all gonna nod and be in the know. Yeah, I get that. Now I say but damn if The Pale King didn't feel something like thisHow odd I can have all this inside me and to you its just words. 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 one-half the magic of DFW. This is absolutely a novel about boredom, tedium, loneliness, isolation, bureaucracy, melancholy, and depression. Did I also mention this book is damn funny and absurd? I giggled at parts. I cried at parts. I
Well, wow. What an epic, wondrous book. I felt a breathless clarity, exhaustive elation, and all-over giddiness reading The Pale Kinga feeling unsurpassed in the overlong Infinite Jest (which could lose 300+ pages easily), the often wilfully opaque stories in Oblivion, or the CPU-on-speed attack of his floating eye essays. Might this have been (or be) the perfect distillation of all Foster Wallaces talents? All his strengths are here, in full bloomhis dizzying insights into the microbial
B.I. #? 04-11 'Well, I was going to suppress the urge to do it this way, but it seemed fitting. Not just in that meta-gimmicky way, but like a sort of homage. Because I genuinely do love the man and his writing, which is not the sort of sentiment that I usually feel toward most fiction writers that I admire.' Q. 'Okay, maybe love isn't the right word. More like a relatable connection. Like listening to that Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth, and thinking about Reznor's substance abuse problem,
well, first off, whew! it has been entirely, inexplicably, unforgivably too long since i've read a new book! what the hell happened? the end of 2011 was terribly shitty in pretty much every sense, and 2012 has been wholly consumed getting zee komputerkorp up off the ground (i've got a company that makes computers...or a computer that makes companies...i forget the details). so, what have we here?chapter 46's long paean to aspergery goodness could have been pretty much lifted from any number of
This could've, had Wallace lived to see it through, exceeded even Infinite Jest. Yes, IJ is my favorite novel, and it's hard for me to imagine anything topping that, but the potential was here. See, for all of DFW's second novel's many virtues, it's a very self-conscious novel. You can tell that Wallace wanted it to be an encyclopedic account of human existence, and while 1,079 pages is a lot, I don't think it's enough to do what Wallace wanted to do. He wanted to make literary history with it,
The Goodreads gods are jerks.***Dear Goodreads gods, If I win the First Reads giveaway for this book, my entire life will have meaning. Every book I've ever read, and every review I've ever written, will have led me to this crowning moment. I've even created a new shelf just for The Pale King: to-read-immediately. I promise to neglect every other aspect of my life, including my dog and my boyfriend and my work, to read this when it comes.PLEASE GIVE ME THIS BOOK PLEASE?Sincerely yours,oriana
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