The Broom of the System

Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho-babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

David Foster Wallace

Literature & Fiction

Penguin??Books

The Penguin Book of New American Voices:Cowboys, Indians and Commuters

William T. Vollmann

Jeffrey, Eugenides

Penguin Books, Ltd.

The Pale King

Literary

Penguin Group Australia

This is David Foster Wallace's final and most ambitious undertaking - an audacious and hilarious look into the abyss of ordinary life. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Centre in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David 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 intriguing 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 ultimate value of work and family - 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 a writer who dared to take on the most daunting subjects the human spirit can imagine.

Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

'One of the most dazzling luminaries of contemporary American fiction' Sunday Times\n'The most commanding and exciting and inventive rhetorical virtuosity of any writer alive... [He] nailed it like nobody else ever had' Jonathan Franzen\n'[He was] first among us. The most talented, most daring, most energetic and original, the funniest... This man got inside the world's mind and changed it for the better' George Saunders\n'Radical, impassioned, heart-and brain-stretching... His talent was so obviously great it confused people' Zadie Smith\nDiscover one of the most celebrated writers of our age - the visionary author of Infinite Jest andA Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again\nFrom genre-defining reportage to genre-breaking fiction, David Foster Wallace captured the human experience as no-one else has - in all its multiplicity, sorrow and tenderness, wit and irony and deep, dazzling truth.\nPenguin presents the very best of his collected fiction and nonfiction, including extracts from his most famous novels, short stories and iconic essays such as 'Consider the Lobster'. Alongside these classic pieces is exclusive, previously unpublished work, and critical contributions from twelve prominent authors and thinkers, all commissioned specifically for this collection.

David Foster Wallace Reader

pale king the air exp

Signifying Rappers

Arts & Photography

Mark Costello

Music

Penguin

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 David Foster Wallace Reader

Hachette

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Books by David Foster Wallace