The Pale King
Read by
Robert Petkoff
Release:
04/15/2011
Release:
04/15/2011
Runtime:
19h 16m
Unabridged
Quantity:
Monthly Membership
$12.99
Cancel anytime!
Memberships will renew every month
One credit every month on renewal
You can spend 1 credit every month to get an audiobook
“Deeply sad, deeply philosophical…By turns breathtakingly brilliant and
stupefying dull—funny, maddening and elegiac…in almost everything
Wallace wrote, including The Pale King, he aimed to use words to lasso
and somehow subdue the staggering, multifarious, cacophonous predicament
that is modern American life.”
New York Times
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
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
Release:
2011-04-15
2011-04-15
Runtime:
Runtime:
19h 16m
19h 16m
Format:
audio
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
1.4 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781609419769
9781609419752
Publisher:
Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group
Praise
Ratings & Reviews
Review guidelines0% of listeners recommend it of readers recommend it
Be the first to rate this audiobook Be the first to rate this book
No one has rated or reviewed The Pale King yet. Listened to it? Would you recommend it? No one has rated or reviewed The Pale King yet. Read it? Would you recommend it?
Rate and review this book, just like in the Downpour app.
Listened to this one? Read this one?
Share what you thought and help others decide.
Sign in to write a reviewYour account can't post reviews right now.
No written reviews yet
0 listeners have rated this audiobook, but no one has written about it yet. Tell others what you thought.
Sign in to write a review