Title: The Pale King
Author: David Foster
Wallace
Read by: Robert
Petkoff
Genre: Fiction
Publisher/Date:
Hachette Audio/2011
ISBN: 978-1-60841-975-2
CDS/hours: 16/19
Listened to: 1/4/17 - 2/9/17
Listened to: 1/4/17 - 2/9/17
Published posthumously Wallace left behind unpublished work
of which The Pale King is a part.
The back cover says “it is a deeply compelling and
satisfying novel”. I take exception is
this statement, yet spent 19 hours listening to drivel and banter and endless
repetition of words. So, it must have
had some redeeming value for me to spend so much time on one story which had no
plot.
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 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 with the IRS are plotting to eliminate what little humanity and
dignity the work still has.
Having been a federal employee myself for 31 years I can
understand how this could happen.
However, I found my career more satisfying and rewarding. I think it’s ironic that Wallace put himself
in the story and then died, since those working for the feds cannot be
published while employed by our national government.
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