recommended for hideous men | Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

victory for the forces of democratic freedom | Brief Interviews with Hideous Men | David Foster Wallace

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	• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men David Foster Wallace Back Bay Books, 2000 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 68 reviews view larger image
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Brief review of a not-so-hideous book

David Foster Wallace is one of those "love him or hate him" kind of guys. His fans love his quirky stories, textural experimentations, and insights on the human condition. His critics, however, think he's too full of himself and egotistical. After attempting to read "Infinite Jest" last year, I was of the latter group. But after reading "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and trying "Infinite Jest" again, I now consider myself a fan.

"Brief Interviews..." is not my favorite DFW book, but it's still a great collection of short stories. Yes, it can sometimes difficult, but if you take the time to really read them you will find some great, and hillarious, stories.

The title story is a series of fictional interviews with men who have some major issues. I've read reviews accusing Wallace of being a sexist, but I don't think he's intentionally glorifying misogyny. Hence the word "hideous" in the title. THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE OUTSTANDING CITIZENS!!!

One of my favorite stories is "The Depressed Person." It is a difficult read because the prose often reads too much like a philsophical textbook than a story. However, it's actually an interesting story about a woman suffering from depression and the effect it has on the people around her.

Another good one is "Octet" which starts off as a series of pop quizzes featuring different scenarios, but then, in a metafictional move, focuses on the author's original intention for the piece and how it didn't work out the way he planned. Judging by your tast, such "breaking the fourth" wall moves like this are either groundbreaking or cliched.

Of course there are flaws. Besides it being sometimes really difficult, some of the stories don't really go anywhere. For example, "Death is Not the End" is not really a story but a very wordy description of a writer relaxing by the pool. When I came to the end of that piece I couldn't help but think, "So what?"

Despite its flaws, "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" is a challenging yet hillarious book that may not be for everyone, but nevertheless displays Wallace's great talent.

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recommended for hideous men

This collection is about two short stories shy of a perfect "10". That said, for anyone that wants to cut their teeth on some DFW before taking the Infinite Jest plunge, I would gladly recommend this compilation. There are numerous gems in here that tease you in every which way. Here are the great (short) examples of DFW's work: format bending, expectation jerking, emotion shredding -- all of it.

victory for the forces of democratic freedom

as with all DFW's work, if you ripped almost exactly 50% of the pages out you could find yourself with a 5 star book.
the first 84 pages are mostly a waste. what wrong with it? two words: slow paced. the ideas are there but they're repeated over and over when you just want to get to the next one. the bit about the kid at the swimming pool would have to be the least rewarding ten pages he's ever published and makes me wish i could read the stuff he discarded instead.
i can't tell whether his breaking the fourth wall part was really written in his own genuine voice or in the character of an author who's trying to manipulate you into liking him, in keeping with a previous theme of the book.
is it really possible he can be apprehensive about using the word "limn" or some analogy involving "A + L = E equation of modern accounting" because only 1 person out of 1000 would care, but have no qualms about publishing his 3 page jargon-riddled futuristic dictionary definition of "date"? is this possible? the basis on which he deducts what is a good or bad idea/piece is his absolute failing. the basis on which he differentiates between what is worth publishing and what isn't is somehow based on attributes completely aside from those that make him my favorite writer. so i guess what i love about his writing is incidental or peripheral to what he's really focussed on. so weird.

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Talented writer will be missed

I am still absorbing the news that David Foster Wallace apparently took his own life this weekend. He was 46.

I vividly recall my experience reading "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," because these short short stories are both insightful and laugh out loud funny. Wallace had a keen understanding of the often reptilian and repellent motivations of human beings. He knew that for all our intelligence compared to other animals, we are maddeningly flawed. I would have loved to read his take on recent political news, such as the claim by a presidential candidate that his opponent called his running mate a pig. Wallace's insight will live on.

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An exuberantly acclaimed collection -- twenty-two stories that combine hilarity and an escalating disquiet as they expand our ideas of the pleasures fiction can afford.