The Pale King - David Foster Wallace

Somewhere in here is a great novel, amid these half-formed, half-written sections. It's about the IRS and boredom and how ordinary people doing ordinary things (processing tax forms) can achieve a level of heroism, a level of cool that mostly goes unrecognized. 

The Pale King can't really be called a novel, more of a journal, and will be remembered more for what it could have been rather than what it is. It's a greatest hit album - if you like David Foster Wallace than you'll like this, but if you don't, this won't change your mind.

The Pale King Early Review

Earlier this year I toyed with the idea of re-reading Infinite Jest. Instead, I've already pre-ordered a copy of DFW's new novel,The Pale King.  Lev Grossman at Time has an early review:

"Pietsch spent two years assembling and editing the contents of that duffel bag. The results will be published, appropriately enough, on April 15. If The Pale King isn't a finished work, it is, at the very least, a remarkable document, by no means a stunt or an attempt to cash in on Wallace's posthumous fame. Despite its shattered state and its unpromising subject matter, or possibly because of them, The Pale King represents Wallace's finest work as a novelist."

Time Magazine