Intended as portion of larger, unfinished novel, this novella tells the story of a man's conversion from drug using "wastoid" to accountant after his father's death in a freak subway accident. Drifting through the 70s, dropping in and out of college with no real plan he has brief moments of awareness when high on diet pills. He realizes he is a disappointment to his father but cannot summon the energy to seek a path until two incidents propel him out of his angst. One is a conversation with his Christian roommate's girlfriend, the other is the "accident" of entering the wrong classroom for a pre-final review and sitting through a session of advanced accounting class which ends with a dry but rousing speech about the heroism of detailed work. This reader suspects that the narrator may be on the autism spectrum as he keeps count of words spoken or written by himself or others, occasionally writing the number of words in a lecture or that he has written so far in the memoir. In any case he sees an advertisement for a training program for the IRS and applies for a career that he apparently finds satisfying.

My favorite part of The Pale King. It was a gift. ( )