Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

A collection of short fiction built around odd and unsettling forms. The title sequence presents fragments of interviews in which men talk about themselves and their dealings with women, revealing vanity, self-deception and cruelty. Other pieces include a story told through a series of cartoon-like scenes, a tale of a difficult marriage, and some short, strange experiments. Wallace is concerned throughout with how people fail to reach one another, and how language can both hide and expose. The book is challenging, darkly funny and often uncomfortable.