“The Pale King”
This was boredom beyond any boredom he’d ever felt. This made the routing desk at UPS look like a day at Six Flags.
Tackling a David Foster Wallace novel is like sitting in the middle of Times Square observing the the minutia of all the activity while simultaneously watching an episode of Seinfeld and feeling like a part of a Don Delillo novel. At times hilarious, the scene is also overwhelming with the details of what we all know to be true about life: often boring, repetitious, and anxiety provoking but also entertaining and sprinkled with fun and joy. Read more 
“White Noise”
Don Delillo is an American novelist who was born in 1936 and started writing novels in the 1960’s. His eighth book, “White Noise” won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1985. Set in a midwestern college town called Blacksmith on the campus of “College on the Hill,” “White Noise” is told from the perspective of Jack Gladney, a 51-year old professor who chairs the Hitler Studies Department at the local college. Gladney is married to Babette (his 5th wife) and together they have six children: his three – Mary Alice (19), Heinrich (14), and Steffie (9) and her three: Denise (11), Eugene (8) and Wilder (3). It may seem like the Brady Bunch but the Gladney family is more like George Banks (Steve Martin from “Father of the Bride”) meets “Mother’s Little Helper” on the set of “Home Alone.” Read more
Paddock Post 