Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel

The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel

Wallace, David Foster

Hardcover

Classic FictionGeneral FictionLiterary Fiction

ISBN10: 0316074233
ISBN13: 9780316074230
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: Apr 15 2011
Pages: 560
Weight: 1.83
Height: 1.68 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.45
Language: English
Awards: Pulitzer Prize
A PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A hilarious, fearless, and original story about IRS employees confronting boredom, bureaucracy, and the strange difficulty of paying attention in everyday life, from the bestselling author of Infinite Jest. breathtakingly brilliant --New York Times

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 even 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.

The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing. --Salon

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