chapters, and find the story he had been attempting to write, that he had been writing and then try to find the most coherent and most complete novel inside there that i could find. and what i found i was awe struck by. it's a brilliant, massive world full of deep questions and challenges pertinent to our lives every day. >> one of the themes in the book and i have to say up front i don't want to pretend like i read the book because i'm so much looking forward to it i've been putting it off so it's this thing that is out there. i've been obsessively reading the reviews. one of the main themes is the kind of boredom these irs agents have to deal with and tackle day in and day out which i think he calls a kind of heroism at one point in the book. what do you think attracted him to this topic? >> i believe that what david wallace wanted to do in writing this novel was try to write a novel that really looked deeply into