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Feb 12, 2012

Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it:

As most of the people in my corner of a corner of a corner of Goodreads know—just as well as they know about my rabid, undying affection for David Foster Wallace—I tend to use Occam's razor to slash through supernaturalistic irrationality on a pretty regular basis. Despite this reflexive skepticism, I couldn't help feeling like this book was somehow written for me while reading it. Working the graveyard shift at a residential treatment facility for "at-risk youth" (the second such faci More...

109 comments like (65 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Bird Brian rated it:

Bear with me; this first part actually does have something to do with The Pale King.

This is going to sound weird as hell, if you haven’t experienced it, but here goes: Occasionally (really, it's “rarely”) I will (unintentionally, mind you) get to thinking in a sort of feedback loop where I am kind of struck by the reality and details of my surroundings and myself. Everything around me seems completely familiar.. a lamp, a table, a window, etc. I know what all those things are, yet More...

29 comments like (42 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2011

Lee rated it:

As good as all his other stuff. No less finished-seeming than anything else he ever did. No plot, but thematic balls are always in the air and bouncing around, plus the prose is always so readable -- often easier, more mature, steadier, less trying to impress than his earlier stuff? Only had to look up two or three vocab words. Awarded the fifth star to encourage the writer to one day finish it properly -- for now, this collection of 540+ bound pages of DFW's writing, whether it's an unfinished More...

9 comments like (24 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2011

Mariel rated it:

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 More...

235 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

RandomAnthony rated it:

The Pale King is a skyscraping achievement. Separating Wallace's backstory from the novel might be impossible, but the edited text, however incomplete, astonishes. The Pale King doesn't need a sympathy vote; the book soars on its own merits.

I should also point out that, after two attempts, I never finished Infinite Jest. A couple years back I recommended IJ to my friend James because he plays tennis and I remembered something in that doorstop about a tennis camp. James is still m More...

12 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Ian rated it:

Original review: May 10, 2011

Review

Because of the length of my review, I have placed it here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2669...

It is chapter 11, in case you get lost in the My Writings page.

Earlier Fictitious Review

Here is an earlier fictitious, more light-hearted review I wrote before finishing the novel:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2669...

Reading Notes

I made copious n More...

32 comments like (17 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2011

Krok Zero marked it as to-read

THIS IS ABOUT MFSO HES JERKIN OFF THINKIN ABOUT IT

14 comments like (14 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2011

Paul added it

As you know I have a lot of difficulty with DFW. I find him difficult! Also exasperating, brilliant, funny, also thinking he’s funnier than he is, also no doubt a genius writer, all of that, and virtually impossible. A difficult case. So I came across a review of The Pale King in the Sunday Times by Theo Tait which explains the problem with DFW. As the Sunday Times is part of the Evil Murdoch Empire and is no longer free online, I thought I would excerpt the best bits as a service I am happy to More...

29 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Eric rated it:

As usual, I'll spare you the plot line and general buzz, since I figure if you're reading this, you've read at least some of the endless hype surrounding this unfinished masterpiece.

And it would have been a masterpiece, judging from what exists of it (because it is very incomplete, make no mistake), and the author's own notes--reproduced at the end of the book--toward structure and theme. It takes on Wallace's usual themes of boredom vs. entertainment, normal vs. aberrant, individual More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

oriana marked it as to-read

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.
PLEA More...

16 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Jim rated it:

David Foster Wallace takes on the central problem of our times. The book can be neatly summed up in section 45, that is pages 439-440 and ends with the sentence "If you are immune to boredom there is literally nothing you can't accomplish". Pale King is therefore a perfect complement or maybe the development of the idea of infinite jest (the desperate need to be entertained), by presenting that imperative's underlying cause "rather the way the ability to breathe and pump blood un More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Kemper rated it:

Upon hearing that David Foster Wallace’s unfinished last novel was going to be published, my first thought was, “How do they know it wasn‘t done?” Because it’s not like Infinite Jest was a model of story resolution.

My question was answered in the introduction of The Pale King by editor Michael Pietsch that gives a concise breakdown of what Wallace left behind and how he put it together. He makes it very clear that this is not the book that Wallace was envisioning before his suicid More...

5 comments like (28 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2011

Jimmy rated it:

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 Re More...

38 comments like (28 people liked it)

May 04, 2011

Chris rated it:

I've spend many, many hours arguing about (mostly against) DFW's merits and place in literature since reading Infinite Jest, way back in 1999 on vacation in Spain; toting the gigantic English paperback edition around from hostel to hostel, taking it on buses and trains through Andalucia, having bought it on the insistent and frenzied recommendation of my dear friend, Scott. A challenging book, annoyingly demanding the use of two bookmarks, and endless flipping from the chapter to the endnotes. N More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

matt rated it:

I'm about a hundred pages in and this book is enthralling and gleamingly (not forbiddingly) complex. I love DFW profoundly, he's one of the writers I turn to for the usual reasons one turns to favorite (personal!) writers. There's insight, wit, beauty, power, depth, irony, verisimilitude, all of that stuff but also a strange sort of love. I don't mean this in an Oprah way or even 'agape' but this kind of... benevolence.

The world is an often ugly, unfair, crude and fucked-up plac More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

Brad rated it:

There was a unique, and horrible sadness finishing this book. David Foster Wallace has been a companion via the bookshelf since 1997. I read 'Infinite Jest' when I, myself, was going through rehab at a shady inpatient facility in Chandler, AZ at age 20. I had the distinct and remarkable pleasure of following him throughout most of his literary career.

Like most of his serious fans, his mastery of the personal, perfectly honed first person became a counterpoint to my own interna More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Frederick rated it:

I listened to the Hachette Audiobook, read by an actor ideally suited to the task: Robert Petkoff.
I will point out that, when I got toward the end, I began comparing the U.S. hardcover edition (published by Little, Brown)to the audiobook and I discovered the texts were different. The audiobook, had entire sentences in it which I couldn't find in the print version, and name substitutions -- for example, the audio has the character's name "Shinn" in Chapter 49 instead of the name " More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 16, 2011

Erica added it

HOLY SHIT IT'S FINALLY IN MY HANDS

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Sean rated it:

I never really planned on reading this book.

In early December, I was walking around the city absentmindedly, thinking about all the books I owned that I still hadn't read. Many of them could be considered tomes, e.g. Pynchon's Against The Day, McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (both still unread), and I thought it would just be plain silly to go and buy another one when I had well over 6 months worth of unread pages gathering dust in my bookshelf. But then I saw DeLillo's White Noise on sale a More...

12 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Matthew rated it:

I think this novel feels very unfinished but still has plenty of breathtaking DFW moments that any of his fans will appreciate. Chapter 22 and Chapter 24 were highlights for me. One cautionary note: this book is in some ways a very bleak read, not only because of what we know about where DFW was headed, but because of (what I see) as the implications of thinking too much, which is either to 1) kill yourself (see "Good Old Neon" from OBLIVION), 2) find some bullshit religion to believe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Adam rated it:

The really obvious thing that everyone keeps talking about is how sad the reality of this unfinished novel is, how sad it is that DFW the man killed himself and how sad it is that we lost DFW the writer. And it's understandable, talking about that is, because we're human beings and when a writer allows us to connect so deeply with him, when he takes us on the massively emotional trip that most fans of DFW think his books ultimately are, and then is taken by his illness, we feel just as we would More...

10 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Lorraine rated it:

Very David Foster Wallace. How raw this is. The initial feeling is one of immense pity -- had he lived to finish it, the book it could've been!! As it is, the incompleteness is evident. One might've read Wallace's other famous novel, Infinite Jest -- it hung together completely, like Ulysses did. The unfinishedness of it is palpable, and in my opinion compromises any fair review the book could've had.

The first thing one should note, I guess, about the Pale King is that W More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Adam rated it:

Giving The Pale King a rating feels strange. It isn't fair, I don't think, to expect a book compiled of notes and unfinished stories to feel as satisfying as a completed novel. But somewhere along the way someone decided that it was complete enough to bind and sell for full price, so it's hard not to treat it as such.

It's anyone's guess how "finished" this book really is. Wallace's long time editor seems to think it's likely that it's near completion. Even though I'm not as q More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2011

Gloriagloom rated it:

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens...cantavano i Talking Heads qualche lustro fa - quando la postmodernità per le masse era un businnes fanciullino - e questo verso potrebbe essere il sottotitolo di questo libro, dove nulla accade, né a Peoria (magnifico nome) né tantomeno nella scrittura congelata e scongelata all'uopo (uopo editoriale) di Foster Wallace. Mentre leggevo mi è tornato in mente un vecchio racconto di Dick dove il meccanismo d'ibernazione di un viaggiatore verso stelle More...

0 comments like

Feb 19, 2012

Tom rated it:

Ever struggle with tedium? Who hasn't? Did you know the word "boring" did not exist in the English language until the advent of the Machine Age? I did not, until this fact was revealed in the course of experiencing David Foster Wallace's final epic, The Pale King. This labor of love, painstakingly brought to life by the author's long-time editor Michael Pietsch when the work was left unfinished after Wallace's suicide in 2008, reveals the infinity underneath boredom. Wallace removes th More...

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Feb 08, 2012

Ron rated it:

some quote I picked up from folks smarter than me...

poignant sensory or character sketches…quote from wikipedia

"takes agonizing daily events like standing in lines, traffic jams, and horrific bus rides—things we all hate—and turns them into moments of laughter and understanding
…friend and editor Michael Pietsch

The above quote had me thinking about reading some of these descriptions that he wrote about those agonizing daily events--as I was reading so More...

0 comments like

Feb 01, 2012

Victoria rated it:

I spent the tail end of a car trip home this summer listening to the first CD of David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King. I had been curious about what reviews called a monumental, unfinished tribute to boredom, as manifested in the lives of several IRS recruits during the 1980s. Wallace committed suicide in 2008, and the novel was assembled by his editor from a sprawling manuscript that filled more than two Trader Joe’s shopping bags.

It’s hard to say what this book is about; there’s More...

0 comments like

Jan 17, 2012

Brett rated it:

Alright, the middle 150 is very tough to get through: on a practical level (it is so, very boring [although in the midst of it it inspired a dark, Wallace-like joke that helped me chuckle my way through it. It goes like this: Wallace: "so people will probably want to know why I killed myself, and I'm not going to leave a lame, obvious, public suicide note, so I'll just write something so fucking boring that it will make the readers want to kill themselves." I did actually say to myself More...

0 comments like

Dec 30, 2011

Matt rated it:

In Jan 2008, an excerpt from the novel appeared in Harper’s. The excerpt was about an infant with “a fierce and level gaze” who confronts one of the novel's narrators about his (= narrator's) performance at work. I've been waiting eagerly to read the book ever since. Thus, when I finally got my trembling mitts on the thing back in April, I just about couldn't contain myself. Pale King (PK) did not disappoint -- it thrilled. Figuring out how the Harper's excerpt fit into Pale King the novel has b More...

0 comments like

Dec 24, 2011

Echoskopos rated it:

This book is really a «heartbreaking work of staggering genius»:
• HEARTBREAKING WORK: because it attracts you with the promise of getting into a fantastic literary (also biographical?) Universe, where the light of DFW's intelligence spreads upon the vast plains of boredom (the main setting of the book is a Regional Center of the US Internal Revenue Service), but then it breaks your expectations, since it is – deeply – unfinished. Many important characters remain a draft, and too much is lef More...

0 comments like