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The Pale King

By David Foster Wallace
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Check link for latest rating. ( 19,565 ratings, 2,378 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Pale King follows a group of employees at an IRS tax return processing centre in Illinois, delving into their lives, routines, and existential contemplations. Through a non-linear narrative, the novel explores themes of boredom, productivity, and the search for meaning in mundane tasks. David Foster Wallace’s intricate prose offers a profound reflection on the human condition amidst the tedium of everyday work.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy deeply introspective narratives that explore the beauty and complexity of ordinary life. You might be drawn to its blend of humour, philosophical musings, and the author's keen insight into the human condition, set against the backdrop of a seemingly mundane government office.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

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 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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

David Foster Wallace's The Pale King is praised for its genius and unique writing style, which deeply affects readers and immerses them in Wallace's distinctive narrative voice. Critics have highlighted its monumental scope and the profound, poignant impact it leaves on its audience.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780143203599

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 March 2012

Country: Australia

Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 33.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 438g

Pages: 592

Collections

David Foster Wallace Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

David Foster Wallace wrote the novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System, and the story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Girl with Curious Hair. His non-fiction includes Consider the Lobster, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Everything and More and This Is Water. Wallace was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award and a Whiting Writers' Award. He died in 2008.

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