Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Author - David Foster Wallace ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Back Bay Books was reviewed on 12-Dec-2008.

Search ISBN:0316925195 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Reference Book. Classifications : Wallace, David Foster ( W ) Authors, A-Z Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General Short Stories Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS Short Stories Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Con . Click the following link to view the cover of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

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1) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. 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.¤

2) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. 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.¤

3) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. I am a huge fan of DFW´s non fiction. His essays are amongst the choicest examples of the modern form. But his fiction I´m not so sure. I keep gearing up for a shot at his mammoth Infinite Jest, but reading these trickles from his stream of consciousness mind puts me off. I can see the talent there, but these come across as flicked off the wrist exercises in craft. Neither particularly stylish nor funny. I think I´ll stick to the non fiction.¤

4) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. 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.¤

5) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. 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.¤

6) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. An exuberantly acclaimed collectiontwenty-two stories that com-- bine hilarity and an escalating disquiet as they expand our ideas of the pleasures fiction can afford. Wallace was recently selected by Time as one of the four outstanding young American writers. The hardcover was a bestselleron the Independent, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller lists.¤

7) Paperback Book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by Back Bay Books. Amid the screams of adulation for bandanna-clad wunderkind David Foster Wallace, you might hear a small peep. It is the cry for some restraint. On occasion the reader is left in the dust wondering where the story went, as the author, literary turbochargers on full-blast, suddenly accelerates into the wild-blue-footnoted yonder in pursuit of some obscure metafictional fancy. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Wallace´s latest collection, is at least in part a response to the distress signal put out by the many readers who want to ride along with him, if he´d only slow down for a second.

The intellectual gymnastics and ceaseless rumination endure (if you don´t have a tolerance for that kind of thing, your nose doesn´t belong in this book), but they are for the most part couched in simpler, less frenzied narratives. The book´s four-piece namesake takes the form of interview transcripts, in which the conniving horror that is the male gender is revealed in all of its licentious glory. In the short, two-part "The Devil Is a Busy Man," Wallace strolls through the Hall of Mirrors that is human motivation. (Is it possible to completely rid an act of generosity of any self-serving benefits? And why is it easier to sell a couch for five dollars than it is to give it away for free?) The even shorter glimpse into modern-day social ritual, "A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life," stretches the seams of its total of seven lines with scathing economy: "She laughed extremely hard, hoping to be liked. Then each drove home alone, staring straight ahead, with the very same twist to their faces." Wallace also imbues his extreme observational skills with a haunting poetic sensibility. Witness what he does to a diving board and the two darkened patches at the end of it in "Forever Overhead":

It´s going to send you someplace which its own length keeps you from seeing, which seems wrong to submit to without even thinking.... They are skin abraded from feet by the violence of the disappearance of people with real weight.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 9-Jan-2009, 03169251959780316925198, 290-230-240-950-840-640-B3B-8

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