Monday, March 02, 2009

Is this good news or bad news?

A posthumous release of an unfinished novel is a tricky business at best, but I am intrigued by the announcement that the late David Foster Wallace had an unfinished work that will be published next year. It has a cool name, "The Pale King" (no it's not about David Bowie!) and is set in an IRS office in Illinois. We will definitely be reading it here at Chez Angus.

1 comment:

Will Welch said...

I'm cautiously optimistic. His essays are among my favorite writing. His short fiction I enjoyed, but not to the same extent. Assuming that the posthumous work will have been heavily edited, out of necessity, I'll be interested to see how much of Wallace's style it really retains. It will take a skilled editor to piece together the vase without smudging it too badly.