The Pale King

We're less than two months removed from The Pale King's release on April 15th, 2011.

Feel free to post anything Pale King related here, even if it's already been posted somewhere else, let's still collect it all here, as we impatiently await the final fiction from our infinite mentor ... David Foster Wallace ...

Gracias!

Some early reviews have been coming in on The Pale King:

Esquire

Publisher's Weekly

Slate (this one includes links to four stories/excerpts from TPK that have already been published.

Another one:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201105/david-foster-wallace-the-pale-king-...

What an interesting piece Murr. Your DFW links are always so much better than the ones I find! Thanks!

I am so excited about publication of The Pale King and I thank you Enrique for your Slate link so I had the chance to read Wallace for myself.

The Slate link is a fabulous find!

Well thanks Ellie. I guess I just really really enjoyed that GQ piece of Murr's, and the several Broom of the System one's he's shared. I read that "Good People" story linked in the Slate piece when the New Yorker originally published it in Jan. 2007, I believe it was, and had no clue then that it was part of something larger, as it stands alone beautifully.

I took a look at your page and saw that you teach autistic kids and just had to say kudos to you for doing that important, challenging work!

Hi everyone, just ordered my copy of Pale King from Powells' and I am so excited. While reading it it just so happens I will be taking a Principles of Accounting course so I hope to be able to follow some of the IRS story line without too much trouble.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/08/david-foster-wallace-pale-king

article by Michael Pietsch on how he put together Pale King.

9:
That's the intro in the book actually. Incidentally, I'm approaching page 150, and so far I am *really* not disappointed.

**SPOILERS FOLLOW**

Though, really I'm not sure how much this book can be spoiled, given its unfinished condition. Anyway, I just wanted to add that the "Author's Foreword" (which actually starts on page 66) is the first instance of super-involuted, metafictional, heavily-footnoted Wallace fiction in the book, and I absolutely loved it. It seemed narratively astute and compassionate in the same way that a story like "Octet" is. So basically I'm just saying that my suspicions have been tentatively confirmed that some of the criticism leveled against the book for its purportedly "dull" or "boring' parts probably won't apply to readers who are already familiar with/already appreciate some of the...less conventional Wallace conventions.

Thanks for that link,Murr. Like an idiot, I wasn't even aware the Ransom Center housed DFW's archives. I am headed over there first chance I get!

Sutpen, I didn't realize it was available yet!

I just received it in the mail last night. So fitting that I get a book about tax returns in mid-April. I can't wait to start it.

11:
Yep, I've had it for over a week now actually. Just too busy to spend much time with it, so I've been chipping away slowly. I pre-ordered with Amazon and they started shipping as soon as they could, since the publisher told sellers they didn't care when they sold it.

Actually it was a little bit of a controversy with independent booksellers who were upset that they were getting one-upped by the Amazon juggernaut. I guess I care about that issue a little bit, but in this case I just cared waaay more about getting my hands on the book ASAP, so whatever. God bless Amazon (for the time being).

I'm hoping to grab a copy tonight after dinner out. I was surprised to read it's 547 pages. I wonder how long DFW planned it to be, or if he even knew.

My wife just told me they were giving away free copies yesterday at the HRC. Gee, thanks hon.

More form the Guardian: article about Karen Green, DFW's widow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/10/karen-green-david-foster-wallace-int...

I've started reading this and it is just so sad to me. I don't know. I will take a break from it because I need more cheer in my life, but plan to come back.

DFW was way too much of a muchness. I don't need footnotes for the footnotes. His tremendous information/knowledge/wisdom, well, he doesn't scare me all that much.

He doesn't scare you, Por-Mon, because he was authentically compassionate, and did not wish to scare you!

I've been reading tons of Cormac McCarthy lately, and I'll be dogdamned if the first chapter of The Pale King does not have that same (or very similar) Cormac cadence to it. Some of the descriptions, I swear, echo the descriptive language of Suttree. I know DFW read McCarthy and thought highly of him as a writer ... does anybody else see the similarities?

So far, stylistically, The Pale King, for me, is unlike any previous book DFW ever wrote. Shorter, often clipped sentences, is what strikes me as the biggest change he'd made in his writing in the twelve years since IJ, up to his death.

I got it Sunday at Powell's (the physical store) and I just finished it. Most of it was read during a 6 hour layover in the Spokane bus station, which is a perfect place to read a book that helps me cope with boredom.

20: Did you like physical Powell's? We are so proud of it.

I am amazed you read the whole thing. The whole book seems to be about coping with boredom, doesn't it. I gave up for the nonce. I need to read something more fun. I will come back to it, though.

KCRWs Bookworm radio program will have David Lipsky & Rick Moody discussing The Pale King here tomorrow night.

Some of you more hardcore DFW-types may recall DFWs many Bookworm discussions with Michael Silverblatt dating back to the days when Infinite Jest had just been released.

22:
Thanks for the heads up. Silverblatt's interviews with Wallace were definitely the best ones he (ie Wallace...but also maybe Silverblatt haha) ever did.

Schoolwork over DFW? Oh Pyro, I thought you were a fanatic! But then you go and grab Signifying Rappers to save your fanatic reputation. ;-)

and don't tell me you have Up, Simba too!

I look forward to your review, Pyro, and wish you luck in your finals. Go, go, go!