The Pale King Summary
David Foster Wallace

The Pale King Summary

The Pale King is an unfinished novel and as such presents only a tentative plot. Much of the novel's material is tangential or unrelated to the main narrative plot action. For this reason, the novel is best read as a tone or texture novel and not a novel overly concerned with plot. The central character of the novel is one David Foster Wallace, who narrates major sections of the novel and claims to be the author of the book. The narrator also makes numerous claims that the novel is in fact non-fiction. Presumably, the autobiographical memoir is presented as fiction at the demand of the publisher who feared legal ramifications for publishing the memoir as written. One of the central conflicts in the novel surrounds the protagonist David Foster Wallace presenting for his first day of work as a new hire at an IRS... View more of the The Pale King Summary