Dept. of On The Nightstand

So I need to get down to reading The Pale King. This review is the first I've seen that doesn't celebrate it's own perception of what Wallace was trying to do but rather examines the (sad) truth that "unfinished novel" may be a generous description of what we have here. (TLS)

Pietsch says that “given the choice between working to make this less-than-final text available as a book and placing it in a library where only scholars would read and comment on it, I didn’t have a second’s hesitation”. There is no doubt that his labours have been heartfelt; but I think he may have misjudged Wallace’s readers. They have always read with at least as much attention and interest as scholars; and there has already been a report from the David Foster Wallace archive by one of them (http://www.theawl.com/2011/04/inside-david-foster-wallaces-private-self-help-library). There are passages here which display the masterful comic touches and moving ethical probing that Wallace’s readers admire; and the more developed characters, especially the possibly sociopathic Toni Ware, are gripping, if inconsistently drawn. But, as a novel, The Pale King is nowhere near to being a finished work. From the internal evidence, it is clear why David Foster Wallace was having insuperable difficulties in making it one.