Just thinking about all the processes of unfolding, All the possibilities lying there unexploded, makes you want to reach in his grave and pull out his severed head (like in IJ?) and just stare into the dead, blemished eyes of a master unbored to death. Never before i'd felt this burning desire to read a thing's pursuance. Because of the incompleteness there isn't any strong feeling of this being a Novel (with a N, yes), it's more like one of his nonfictions, but you can clearly see the Novelistic-cells in becoming and had it been completed then it would've been one of the greatest achievements in contemporary world (including finding Higgs boson).The part about Toni and his mother (in early pages) is still flashing in my eyes, that's (possibly) the best piece of prose i've seen from him, but the crazy thing about the pale king is not the brilliance of technicality, instead what mesmerizes me is those parts about banal cliches (and their too-universal themes) wrapped in a blanket of sheer ingeniousness in such a way that they don't seem banal or universal at all. Having the ability and balls to write about unbelievably bold and "Placard-ish" stuff and nailing it in this manner, is DFW's unique and unmatchable magic. Who can talk about "down with the WHATEVER" nowadays and don't look like a Jimmy Cater? "By turns breathtakingly brilliant and stupefying dull" - as said by the New York Times - for a reason. This isn't a book for everyone, or anyone. For a start, it's populated with complex, unconnected jargon perpetuated by complex, unconnected characters...so much so that at every other juncture you'd find yourself wanting to toss the book aside in sheer frustration, only to pick it up again as you crave the next nugget of observational brilliance that is Wallace's signature. There are chapters devoted wholly to explaining the technicalities of filing taxes. A person with a passing knowledge and/or interest in accounting and/or taxation might find the redundancies and hypocritical methods of the IRS's functions enlightening, but otherwise its long and detailed explanation will drive away all but Wallace's most loyal fans. You have been warned. At the same time, should you be able to come to terms with the fact that a book on boredom will inevitably be boring at some stage (by deliberate design, one would think), then you will find some genuine gems in the novel. After all, its setting would permit for it. As soulless as federal tax collection can be, it is still done by humans who before arriving at the roles they have chosen for themselves at the IRS had once led human lives, with human fears, and human hopes. The fact that all of them ended up in the same tedious hellhole (some of them get their backstories fleshed out more; others less so) paints a sad backdrop indeed. You can't help but think that it is more likely than not that somewhere in the world, this is happening to a similar group of people. You'd also have to bear in mind that this is an unfinished work. There is no flow here. Be prepared to take it as it is, and allow yourself to be immersed in the splintered nature of it. You will be richly rewarded. As another reviewer said, "The Pale King is the kind of novel that will wait until you're ready. Take it slow."
What do You think about The Pale King (2011)?
I read about 40% of this book, waiting for something to happen, before giving up.
—gsisvillage
