THE PALE KING (part 1)

I finished this book last night. Here are my preliminary thoughts (only spoilery if knowing anything about the book is a spoiler to you):

1. It's a fragment, a tantalizing fragment to be sure.

2. That said, and having no idea what kind of editing went on behind the scenes, what has been published is more complete within itself (or at least arranged in such a way) than I had expected reading about the book. You can start to see the outlines of something, but...

3. Most of the reviews seem to be based on the potential book, that is Where This Is Going, and not the extant fragment(s). If it's impossible to review the latter it seems at least unfair to be reviewing the former. I'm going to try to do so, but it may be difficult. Warning you now.

4. Did anyone catch that the book-jacket bio reads that DFW "leaves behind unpublished work, of which THE PALE KING is a part"? What else is in that vault?! ...

5. Which leads to my initial reaction to this book, to wit, disappointment that there isn't more of it, and that there won't be more. It would be wrong of me to pretend otherwise.