Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

I have to preface this review by saying that I normally do not have a visceral reaction to novels and stories I do not like. As a matter of fact, I have wasted a good chunk of my life reading things that were no good and or not worth reading. That being said, I actually threw this book across the room. I have never read such a self-congratulatory piece in all my life. The smug conceit of the author actually oozes out of every page. The book made me go and reread some Dostoevsky, just so I could feel better about the world and literature.

I can only echo jonvoellestad's excellent review below. This is truly a book for our times, and Wallace is the one contemporary writer who seems to hit the mark with everything he does. He is able to track and elucidate moments in life which we all have but which we've never seen in fiction before.

There are many great stories and vignettes here but the highlight is the outstanding penultimate story (simply called Brief Interviews #20) in which a man narrates his experience of a girl telling the story of how she was raped by a psychotic sex killer. The trick is that Wallace manages to write highly self-consciously, humorously and movingly all at the same time, no easy feat. He takes the best parts of the realist, modernist and postmodernist traditions and combines them into something new and hilariously funny.

In doing so he transcends genre to produce something new and very exciting. The future of fiction is here.

In this collection of short stories, David Foster Wallace displays a deep understanding of the dark side of the male psyche. He also has fun with words and structure and tries out some unusual story ideas, but at the core of the book are the "interviews with hideous men" that provide the title.
My personal favourites were Adult World (I) and (II), a two part exploration of a relationship, and The Devil is a Busy Man. Foster Wallace is *so* good at getting into the (lack of) communication prevalent in all forms of relationships and at exploring what is not being said or even acknowledged.
The collection is patchy - although tastes will differ, for my money The Depressed Person is just plain boring and some other stories drag and/or don't quite work. But when you're exploring this far over the edge sometimes the risks aren't gonna pay off.
This book should be compulsory reading for all women and for all men who wish to better understand themselves and their gender.

Great Book. Wallace is in full form!

Excerpts of reviews printed on the cover bill the book as a brilliant comedy. Brilliant, perhaps; comedic, no. Violence, rape, and misogyny are the common themes of these stories. One graphic description of a rape disturbed me for days. The book is full of creativity and worth reading, but don't expect lighthearted humor.