The Pale King
Regular readers of this blog, particularly the book stuff, will know that I'm a huge fan of David Foster Wallace and remain crushed and saddened by his 2008 suicide. The word genius gets tossed around a bit lightly these days, but he certainly qualified by most metrics, and his death is a continued loss.
He left behind the foundation of a novel, titled The Pale King, which though incomplete was edited together by his friend and editor Michael Pietsch. It should be stated first and foremost that whatever one may think of the book (and what I think follows and is, essentially, the point of this post) that the editing job here is a masterwork. It is clear, both from the content and the notes that Wallace (DFW from here on out) left that Pietsch had very little to work with, and what he's sewn together does make sense and shows how much promise the book had.
That last line may give you a sense of my opinion of the book - it has already landed on numerous "best of" lists and many have said it is DFW's finest work. I see no possible way that's the case. For one, he has a legacy of brilliant, finished, works that might have something to say about it ... and secondly, this book on its own is quite often a challenge.
Now, a challenge is somewhat of a hallmark of DFW - I started Infinite Jest three times before it hooked me for good, and anyone who has a book with 300 pages of footnotes isn't exactly a beach read author. But The Pale King is a challenge primarily for two reasons:
It is completely unfinished, with no overarching arc and a truly incomplete story
It is about the I.R.S. and boredom and includes pages and pages of text that I think would have been edited out in a later draft. To say that it is slow at times is a mammoth understatement.
DFW stated that he hoped to wean out about 90% of the chaff -- of course, editor Pietsch wanted his fans to read his work and appropriately didn't throw anything away. That leads to things like a repeated phrase (squeezing his shoes) way more times than would ever exist in a complete novel, and chapters that are wandering, aimless and often unsatisfying.
The book follows employees of the IRS office in Peoria, IL and some of these anecdotes are masterful while others are engaging and give hints that vintage DFW story lay ahead. In particular, a lengthy chapter towards the end between Meredith Rand (the office hottie) and a coworker who seemingly has Aspergers or something similar is one of the best chapters in the book, utterly compelling, hilarious and tragic (which somewhat defines DFW at his best). There are also "author notes" from 'David Wallace' one of the characters in the book but also, based on his description, not necessarily supposed to be the author. We learn, among other things, that there are two David Wallaces starting at the branch on the same day which causes some issues ... but we don't get much further.
And there are many other characters with secrets, personality issues and in some cases psychic abilities that all hold so much promise. For that, and for many sentences and chapters that made me feel like I was truly reading what DFW would have sent to the bookbinder, I really did love those parts of the book.
However, in assessing a true grade here, I can only ask two things:
Would I give the book a different rating if it was written by someone besides DFW - indeed, an author I knew nothing about?
Would I give the book a different rating if it was, in theory, a completed work?
In both cases, the answer is affirmatively YES. On its own, this book is an inconsistent mess. would probably have given it a 5.0/10.0 which is about as low as I can go with a book I actually finish. But, with the obvious, open caveat that this is a biased grade, I'll give it a 7.0/10.0 on the DFW scale. This is also because at the very end, Pietsch includes notes from DFW to himself about where he was going - a fascinating insight that I'd love to see from every author, and particularly here. I won't spoil them for folks who will read them, but make sure to read them if you do pick this up.
For fans of his work, it's a must-read - because it's his last. All others likely need not apply.