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January 16, 2014
Confession: I picked up THE PALE KING because I thought it was a cool thing to do. I happened upon it at “Half Price Books” and knew of the name “David Foster Wallace”. And coincidentally, just before buying the book, I’d read a few random blurbs about him on the internet. So I grabbed it, thinking that as an avid reader, I should probably dig this writer.
I basically knew what I was getting into because I’d seen that THE PALE KING was somehow about the IRS. I was so curious....how could a book about the IRS possibly be this noteworthy and could it really be an interesting read? And it’s a big, long, intimidating book too - that was obvious as I carried it around the store. However, undaunted, I dove in.
Before I write my thoughts, you should know a brief back story on the book. Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:
The Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011.[1] After Wallace's suicide on September 12, 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend and editor Michael Pietsch into the form that was eventually published. Wallace had been working on the novel for over a decade. Even incomplete, The Pale King is a long work, with 50 chapters of varying length totaling over 500 pages.
So....yeah....this is a challenging read. If you want more of the book’s background, click below.
I won’t spend any time “summarizing” or writing a “plot synopsis”. These things are nearly impossible for this book and wouldn’t do you much good anyways.
The point I want to make in this review is, for me, THE PALE KING is a lot like MOBY DICK. I have not actually read all of MOBY DICK but I did listen to the full audio book recently during gym workouts. MOBY DICK is FULL of long, tedious, unfathomable, un-understandable descriptions of whaling practices, whaling ships, whaling terms, etc. etc. Wrapped around all this remarkable information, is the fantastic story of Ahab, Ishmael, the crew of the Pequod and the great white whale himself
In THE PALE KING, you get excruciatingly detailed chapters on IRS code, IRS practices, IRS training, etc. etc. Wrapped around all that, is....well....stuff. Interesting, well-written, stuff that’s remotely related to the other stuff in the book....but it’s still just stuff. And it takes a while to get to the really good stuff, which for me was largely towards the end. I’m glad to have stuck with this book and plowed through all the heavy IRS mumbo jumbo. Some of this technical IRS writing WAS actually interesting and presented by Mr. Wallace in an enjoyable way. But most of it took work to get through. With MOBY DICK, if I was stuck in a particularly boring section about whaling, I’d just zone out into my exercise and not pay much attention to the audio book. But with THE PALE KING, I was actually reading it. I was all up in it and it was tough at times. I won’t even mention the chapters where Mr. Wallace uses footnotes with text so small they are nearly painful to read.
I truly wanted to finish the book and you’ll need that desire as well, if you choose to tackle this behemoth. I felt that reading it would be a good thing for me to do, and honestly, the simple desire to get to the end kept me going more often than an urge to see what would happen. There aren’t really any characters to really root for and no true story arc to resolve. Yet I must honestly say that yes....it’s a great book. However, you some how some way better be sure you are going to like it before you start it! Or at least commit yourself to finishing it no matter what.
To offer some temptation, I bookmarked some of my favorite parts of this book. THE PALE KING is so disjointed, you could almost just read these bits and get some enjoyment. Or get some taste of Mr. Wallace’s fine writing and a flavor of the whole book. But, of course, it would not be the same as finishing it. Sort of like reading the chapter in MOBY DICK called “The Quarterdeck”. It was my favorite passage.
Also if you read just little bits and pieces of THE PALE KING, you’d naturally assume these parts fit together in some overall narrative. But they don’t. They sort of do, but they don’t really. Confused? Me too.
Chapter 33 is about an IRS examiner growing so tired and bored with his monotonous job that he sees and converses with a phantom. This supernatural chapter leaps out of nowhere and really wakes up the reader. But you have to battle through all the way to pg. 378 to read it.
That chapter I guess sort of ramped the whole book up for me because everything I have marked came after that. Chap. 34 is a single paragraph of pure IRS drizzle. Then Chap. 35 is all about an IRS employee who goes into his boss’s office and is surprised to find the boss’s infant there. The detailed, entertaining description of this brief but apparently highly significant encounter is absolutely brilliant and great to read.
Chapter 46 is an exquisitely detailed retelling of a long conversation between two IRS employees at a happy hour. One, a beautiful woman - who’s considered by most to be so hot she’s basically unapproachable. The other, a sort of nerd, sort of loner, yet everybody kind of respects him type of guy. I recall reading this chapter and thinking ‘Did Mr. Wallace eavesdrop/transcribe this conversation so that he could recount it so completely? Is it entirely made up?’ However he did it, it’s a fascinating character study.
This review is getting long, rambling and possibly confusing (making it entirely appropriate for THE PALE KING) so I’ll close with a neat quote from Chap. 44 - “If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish”. If this is you - then YES, you can get through all the mind-numbing whaling stuff and read a really great book called MOBY DICK. AND you can crunch your way through all the IRS minutia and finish a truly fascinating novel called THE PALE KING.
Strangely, I cannot positively recommend either book. Especially not THE PALE KING. I endeavored to finish it because I was committed to it and was oddly drawn to it’s strangeness. As I’ve said many times, you really must be certain that you are going to stay with this book before you delve into it. Read about it on Wikipedia, read about Mr. Wallace, and figure out if the whole idea of the book tantalizes you or not. If it does, stick with THE PALE KING and you will find you’ve really accomplished something.
Happy Reading!
Learn more about THE PALE KING on wikipedia
I basically knew what I was getting into because I’d seen that THE PALE KING was somehow about the IRS. I was so curious....how could a book about the IRS possibly be this noteworthy and could it really be an interesting read? And it’s a big, long, intimidating book too - that was obvious as I carried it around the store. However, undaunted, I dove in.
Before I write my thoughts, you should know a brief back story on the book. Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:
The Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011.[1] After Wallace's suicide on September 12, 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend and editor Michael Pietsch into the form that was eventually published. Wallace had been working on the novel for over a decade. Even incomplete, The Pale King is a long work, with 50 chapters of varying length totaling over 500 pages.
So....yeah....this is a challenging read. If you want more of the book’s background, click below.
I won’t spend any time “summarizing” or writing a “plot synopsis”. These things are nearly impossible for this book and wouldn’t do you much good anyways.
The point I want to make in this review is, for me, THE PALE KING is a lot like MOBY DICK. I have not actually read all of MOBY DICK but I did listen to the full audio book recently during gym workouts. MOBY DICK is FULL of long, tedious, unfathomable, un-understandable descriptions of whaling practices, whaling ships, whaling terms, etc. etc. Wrapped around all this remarkable information, is the fantastic story of Ahab, Ishmael, the crew of the Pequod and the great white whale himself
In THE PALE KING, you get excruciatingly detailed chapters on IRS code, IRS practices, IRS training, etc. etc. Wrapped around all that, is....well....stuff. Interesting, well-written, stuff that’s remotely related to the other stuff in the book....but it’s still just stuff. And it takes a while to get to the really good stuff, which for me was largely towards the end. I’m glad to have stuck with this book and plowed through all the heavy IRS mumbo jumbo. Some of this technical IRS writing WAS actually interesting and presented by Mr. Wallace in an enjoyable way. But most of it took work to get through. With MOBY DICK, if I was stuck in a particularly boring section about whaling, I’d just zone out into my exercise and not pay much attention to the audio book. But with THE PALE KING, I was actually reading it. I was all up in it and it was tough at times. I won’t even mention the chapters where Mr. Wallace uses footnotes with text so small they are nearly painful to read.
I truly wanted to finish the book and you’ll need that desire as well, if you choose to tackle this behemoth. I felt that reading it would be a good thing for me to do, and honestly, the simple desire to get to the end kept me going more often than an urge to see what would happen. There aren’t really any characters to really root for and no true story arc to resolve. Yet I must honestly say that yes....it’s a great book. However, you some how some way better be sure you are going to like it before you start it! Or at least commit yourself to finishing it no matter what.
To offer some temptation, I bookmarked some of my favorite parts of this book. THE PALE KING is so disjointed, you could almost just read these bits and get some enjoyment. Or get some taste of Mr. Wallace’s fine writing and a flavor of the whole book. But, of course, it would not be the same as finishing it. Sort of like reading the chapter in MOBY DICK called “The Quarterdeck”. It was my favorite passage.
Also if you read just little bits and pieces of THE PALE KING, you’d naturally assume these parts fit together in some overall narrative. But they don’t. They sort of do, but they don’t really. Confused? Me too.
Chapter 33 is about an IRS examiner growing so tired and bored with his monotonous job that he sees and converses with a phantom. This supernatural chapter leaps out of nowhere and really wakes up the reader. But you have to battle through all the way to pg. 378 to read it.
That chapter I guess sort of ramped the whole book up for me because everything I have marked came after that. Chap. 34 is a single paragraph of pure IRS drizzle. Then Chap. 35 is all about an IRS employee who goes into his boss’s office and is surprised to find the boss’s infant there. The detailed, entertaining description of this brief but apparently highly significant encounter is absolutely brilliant and great to read.
Chapter 46 is an exquisitely detailed retelling of a long conversation between two IRS employees at a happy hour. One, a beautiful woman - who’s considered by most to be so hot she’s basically unapproachable. The other, a sort of nerd, sort of loner, yet everybody kind of respects him type of guy. I recall reading this chapter and thinking ‘Did Mr. Wallace eavesdrop/transcribe this conversation so that he could recount it so completely? Is it entirely made up?’ However he did it, it’s a fascinating character study.
This review is getting long, rambling and possibly confusing (making it entirely appropriate for THE PALE KING) so I’ll close with a neat quote from Chap. 44 - “If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish”. If this is you - then YES, you can get through all the mind-numbing whaling stuff and read a really great book called MOBY DICK. AND you can crunch your way through all the IRS minutia and finish a truly fascinating novel called THE PALE KING.
Strangely, I cannot positively recommend either book. Especially not THE PALE KING. I endeavored to finish it because I was committed to it and was oddly drawn to it’s strangeness. As I’ve said many times, you really must be certain that you are going to stay with this book before you delve into it. Read about it on Wikipedia, read about Mr. Wallace, and figure out if the whole idea of the book tantalizes you or not. If it does, stick with THE PALE KING and you will find you’ve really accomplished something.
Happy Reading!
Learn more about THE PALE KING on wikipedia