The Pale King
| Company type | Novel |
|---|---|
| Industry | Literature |
| Founded | April 15, 2011 |
| Founder | David Foster Wallace |
| Fate | Unfinished, published posthumously |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Novel |
The Pale King represents an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, released posthumously on April 15, 2011. Intended to be Wallace's third novel and his first following Infinite Jest (1996), it remained incomplete at the time of his passing. Before his 2008 suicide, Wallace arranged the manuscript and related files for discovery by his widow, Karen Green, and literary agent Bonnie Nadell. Editor Michael Pietsch subsequently assembled these materials into the published version. Wallace had devoted more than ten years to this project; despite its unfinished status, the book encompasses 50 chapters and exceeds 500 pages.
Although nominated as a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, no award was granted that year.
Overview
Consistent with much of Wallace's oeuvre, the novel defies straightforward summarization. Its chapters vary greatly—from conversations among colleagues about subjects like civics or cartography to passages featuring the 1985 Illinois tax code and intricate character portrayals. A significant portion centers on employees of the Internal Revenue Service stationed in Peoria, Illinois during 1985. One narrator named David Wallace serves as a fictionalized version of the author himself but is not the primary protagonist. Editor Pietsch characterized the task of organizing the manuscript as "a challenge unlike any I have ever faced."
Chapter 9, titled the fictional "Author's Foreword," includes extensive footnotes and introduces what Wallace terms an "irksome paradox": although the copyright page asserts that "The characters and events in this book are fictitious," this foreword itself is declared fictional by that same disclaimer. Wallace refers to The Pale King as "a kind of vocational memoir" rather than a work of metafiction. Central figures include Lane Dean Jr., Claude Sylvanshine, David Cusk, and Leonard Stecyk—men drawn to careers at the IRS for varied motivations.
Writing, editing, and publication
Wallace commenced research for The Pale King in 1997 following the publication of Infinite Jest, beginning actual writing around 2000. The novel, which Wallace often described as a "long thing," underwent several working titles such as Glitterer, SJF (standing for Sir John Feelgood), Net of Gems, and What Is Peoria For?
By 2007, Wallace estimated that approximately one-third of the novel was complete. A notebook discovered by his widow, Karen Green (who also created the cover art for the American edition), hinted at a storyline involving "an evil group within the IRS attempting to steal secrets from an agent skilled in maintaining concentration." However, Wallace’s final narrative intentions remain unclear.
In his last moments, Wallace meticulously organized his manuscript so that his wife could locate it easily. Alongside it were hundreds of additional pages—including drafts, character outlines, notes, and fragments not incorporated into the main text. Editor Michael Pietsch noted that the original manuscript contained over 1,000 pages across 150 chapters; the published edition features 540 pages and 50 chapters, with the paperback version adding four scenes totaling 23 pages.
On September 14, 2010, Pietsch announced the release date and described the book’s central theme as transforming everyday irritations—such as waiting in lines or enduring traffic—into opportunities for humor and deeper understanding, reflecting themes from Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement address. Pietsch stressed that despite its unfinished nature, readers will find a surprisingly coherent and fulfilling experience that highlights Wallace’s imaginative skill and his unique blend of comedy interwoven with profound melancholy.
Although Little, Brown and Company officially scheduled publication for April 15, 2011 (Tax Day), copies became available online through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble as early as March 22. This early availability triggered objections from physical bookstore owners who felt placed at a disadvantage. Little, Brown defended this phased release strategy as standard practice within the publishing industry.
Themes
Richard Rayner from the Los Angeles Times characterized The Pale King as an exploration of "loneliness, depression, and the ennui that underpins human existence," emphasizing a "profound form of suffering" that endures yet is frequently overlooked. The narrative plunges readers into this "overwhelming monotony," while hinting at a deeper significance beyond the tedium.
This core theme resonates with Wallace's 2005 Kenyon College commencement address, in which he encouraged mindfulness and deliberate attention to how individuals interpret and derive meaning from their experiences.
Reception
Jonathan Segura, writing for Publishers Weekly, observed that although The Pale King might not meet the monumental expectations set since Infinite Jest, it stands as "an impressive document" and serves as a worthy homage to Wallace’s literary legacy.
Benjamin Alsup, contributing to Esquire, described the book as an "unfinished, oddly fragmented pseudo-memoir" marked by narrative discontinuities. Nonetheless, he advocated for its readership due to Wallace’s enthralling prose style that engages readers beyond traditional narrative forms.
In Time, Lev Grossman praised the incomplete novel as an extraordinary artifact, representing Wallace’s finest work in fiction despite its fragmented nature and seemingly unpromising subject matter.
Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times depicted the novel as a "roughly assembled compendium" of Wallace’s signature themes and stylistic approaches. She labeled it "astonishingly brilliant yet occasionally tedious," forecasting that it would draw both devoted followers and newcomers by revealing Wallace’s perspective on the American human experience. Kakutani regarded it as his "most emotionally direct creation."
John Jeremiah Sullivan offered a detailed and appreciative critique in GQ Magazine.
David Hering’s book David Foster Wallace: Fiction and Form provides an in-depth examination of the novel’s evolution, with portions published in the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2016.
The Pale King was shortlisted among three finalists for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, although no award was granted that year.
Awards and secondary scholarly literature
The novel earned the 2011 Salon Book Award in the Fiction category.
The inaugural academic conference dedicated to the book, titled "Work in Process: Reading David Foster Wallace's The Pale King," took place at the University of Antwerp in Belgium during September 2011. Organized by Toon Staes, this event featured presentations and discussions led by prominent Wallace scholars such as Marshall Boswell, Adam Kelly, and Stephen J. Burn.
In 2012, a special edition of Studies in the Novel, edited by Marshall Boswell, focused exclusively on The Pale King. This issue comprises seven scholarly articles alongside a review of existing Wallace scholarship, addressing subjects including narrative construction, empathy, boredom’s political dimensions, and civic engagement within the novel. Notable contributions include:
- Introduction: David Foster Wallace's The Pale King – Marshall Boswell
- "A Paradigm for the Life of Consciousness": Closing Time in The Pale King – Stephen J. Burn
- Narrative Modeling and Community Organizing in The Pale King and Infinite Jest – Andrew Warren
- Rewriting the Author: A Narrative Approach to Empathy in Infinite Jest and The Pale King – Toon Staes
- The Politics of Boredom and the Boredom of Politics in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King – Ralph Clare
- 'What Am I, a Machine?': Humans, Information, and Matters of Record in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King – Conley Wouters
- Trickle-Down Citizenship: Taxes and Civic Responsibility in David Foster Wallace's The Pale King – Marshall Boswell
- The Legacy of David Foster Wallace by Samuel Cohen and Lee Konstantinou (review) – Clare Hayes-Brady
Published excerpts
Prior to the book's official release, multiple passages from The Pale King were featured in various literary magazines:
- "Peoria (4)" appeared in the Fall 2002 edition of TriQuarterly
- "Good People" was published in the February 5, 2007 issue of The New Yorker
- "The Compliance Branch" featured in the February 2008 issue of Harper's
- "Wiggle Room" appeared in the March 9, 2009 issue of The New Yorker
- "A New Examiner" was printed in both the January 2010 edition of The Lifted Brow and the September 2010 issue of Harper's
- "Backbone" was included in the March 7, 2011 issue of The New Yorker
- An excerpt titled "The Pale King," taken from chapter 22, was published on April 9, 2011, within the Sunday Review section of The Guardian
Before the novel’s publication, some short stories compiled in Oblivion—notably "Incarnations of Burned Children" and "The Soul is Not a Smithy"—were rumored to be parts of The Pale King, though they ultimately were not incorporated into the final text. Nevertheless, academic Nick Maniatis verified that "Incarnations of Burned Children" originated from early drafts related to The Pale King. Additionally, the short story "All That", which appeared on December 14, 2009 in The New Yorker, was also thought to be connected to The Pale King, but it does not appear within the novel itself.