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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David…
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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (original 1999; edition 2000)

by David Foster Wallace

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3,511553,636 (3.72)66
Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.


Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,' a dark, hilarious series of imagined interviews with men on the subject of their relations with women.


Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the absurd, the surprising, and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will enthrall DFW fans, and provides a perfect introduction for new readers.

.
… (more)
Member:feca67
Title:Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Authors:David Foster Wallace
Info:Abacus (2000), Paperback, 288 pages
Collections:Your library, Read but unowned
Rating:*
Tags:None

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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (1999)

  1. 00
    Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (Sandydog1)
    Sandydog1: Equally nasty and disturbing and beautifully written
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» See also 66 mentions

English (52)  Dutch (2)  Polish (1)  All languages (55)
Showing 1-5 of 52 (next | show all)
I really wish I could give this 4 and a half stars.

This was an extremely difficult collection of stories to work through. If you don't value the rewards of working through difficult prose, this book is not for you.

It's a powerful collection, filled with characters that I was often horrified to discover I related to. I was most struck by The Depressed Person, a powerful story that just won't leave my head. The last interview is also powerful, and it has made an indelible mark in my brain.
( )
  dogboi | Sep 16, 2023 |
This book by David Foster Wallace is spotty. Some essays are excellent and portray tortured relationships, personalities and society. Others are long-winded without a clear direction and meander.

I may attempt to reread the book after a few years. ( )
  RajivC | May 30, 2023 |
If you're tired of how orderly most books are, this one is totally disorderly and very entertainingly so. DFW is one of the most brilliant authors you'll find, and also one of the most playful. It's a winning combination. ( )
  Cr00 | Apr 1, 2023 |
I read this book in high school because I had a huge crush on John Krasinski and he made it into a movie; I feel like that's a good enough reason to read any book. It actually made me fall into love with DFW, and then Consider the Lobster made me fall out of it because I was a sheltered 16-year-old who probably wasn't ready to read it. ( )
  graceandbenji | Sep 1, 2022 |
Wallace's focus on minutia is somewhat impressive at first, but after a while it just becomes annoying. It is filled with men talking nonsense, full of academic jargon worthy of the son of professors and a professor himself. There is an obsession with abuse and rape--Wallace himself was apparently quite abusive in his personal relationships. Frankly, this is pure drivel--basically literary masturbation. But if these are the things that were going through the author's head every day, it is no surprise he took his own life. Giving this a half star, so no one thinks I forgot to rate it. It deserves zero stars. ( )
  datrappert | Jul 21, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 52 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (16 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
David Foster Wallaceprimary authorall editionscalculated
Cannavale, BobbyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cerveris, MichaelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Charles, JoshNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ferris, JoshuaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Forte, WillNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Goodwin, MalcolmNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Meloni, ChristopherNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Messina, ChrisReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Minghella, MaxReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
O'Hare, Denis P.Narratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pucci, Lou TaylorNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Shenkman, BenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Slotnick, JoeyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stoll, CoreyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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The fifty-six-year-old American poet, a Nobel Laureate, a poet known in American literary circles as "the poet's poet" or sometimes simply "the Poet," lay outside on the deck, bare-chested, moderately overweight, in a partially reclined deck chair, in the sun, reading, half supine, moderately but not severely overweight, winner of two National Book Awards, a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Lamont Prize, two grants from the National Endowment for the Ars, a Prix de Rome, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a MacDowell Medal, and a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a president emeritus of PEN, a poet two separate American generations have hailed as the voice of their generation, now fifty-sex, lying in an unwet XL Speedo-brand swimsuit in an incrementally reclinable canvas deck chair on the tile deck beside the home's pool, a poet who was among the first ten Americans to receive a "Genius Grant" from the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of only three American recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature now loving, 5'8", 181 lbs., brown/brown, hairline unevenly recessed because of the inconsistent acceptance/rejection of various Hair Augmentation Systems--brand transplants, he say, or lay -- or perhaps most accurately just 'reclined' -- in a black Speedo swimsuit by the home's kidney-shaped pool, on the pool's tile deck...
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Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.


Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,' a dark, hilarious series of imagined interviews with men on the subject of their relations with women.


Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the absurd, the surprising, and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will enthrall DFW fans, and provides a perfect introduction for new readers.

.

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