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BookTalk at BSC finishes up on March 5

Published: Feb 27 2017
BookTalk at BSC finishes up on March 5 - Photo
The last discussion in "The Prize That Wasn't: 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction" BookTalk series at Bismarck State College takes place Sunday, March 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the new Library-English-Art building (LEA Hall) at 1400 Schafer Street. The final book in the serious is “The Pale King” by David Foster Wallace.
 
When Wallace died in 2008, he left behind an unfinished manuscript, along with hundreds of other pages of notes and ideas. Through the combined efforts of his wife, agent, and editor, his final work was released in 2011 as “The Pale King”. 
 
Dr. AnnMarie Kajencki, BSC professor of English, leads the discussion of this complex book of jumbled narrative that combines a memoir with the various stories of a group of IRS employees stationed in Peoria, Ill., in 1985. 
 
The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center appear ordinary, but as Wallace 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. Despite being incomplete and sometimes incomprehensible, the novel's themes of depression, loneliness, self-awareness, and the tedium of daily life are expressed with a depth and poignancy that only Wallace could muster.
 
Books are available at local libraries and booksellers. Discussions are open to all. For more information, call 224-5450 or visit bismarckstate.edu/library.
 
The 17th annual series is funded by the BSC Library and a grant from the BSC Foundation.