The Pale King

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace is an unfinished novel published posthumously in 2011. Set largely in 1985 at an IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, the book explores the lives of IRS employees as they navigate the monotony and ennui of bureaucratic work. Through a series of standalone chapters featuring dialogues, character sketches, and reflections, the novel meditates on themes of boredom, loneliness, depression, and the search for meaning in the mundane. Wallace presents a paradoxical vision where intense attention to tedious tasks, like tax processing, can lead to a form of transcendental experience or constant bliss. The work blends realism with metafictional elements and reflects on the cultural shift away from civic responsibility toward mechanization and dehumanization.