BOOK OF THE WEEK: WEEK THIRTY-ONE, 2011

David Foster Wallace, The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel (New York: Little, Brown, 2011) (Carefully read Tom McCarthy, "David Foster Wallace: The Last Audit," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 4/17/2001. Michiko Kakutani, "Maximized Revenue, Minimized Existence, NYT, Friday, 4/1/2011, captures the novel's essence (or, at least one of its essences): "[A]n America so plagued by tedium, monotony and meaningless bureaucratic rules and regulations that its citizens are in danger of dying of boredom." I do so relate.).