Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

Hey guys! I've been reading, I swear. I know it doesn't seem like it because this internet blog is getting internet dust all over it's internet cover, but books are being read. Trust me, I've got a whole ante-chamber in my large Victorian mansion FILLED with large, musty tomes that I plow through nightly in my satin smoking jacket and large slippers. I'm totally NOT sitting on the internet 8 hours a day playing banner-ad games and obsessively refreshing facebook every 5 minutes. That would be a waste, and I am not a wasteful person.

My personal collection; JD Salinger lives on row 12.

Amidst the clutter of my thick, hard-bound and gilded medieval book library, sandwiched in between my unabridged War and Peace and Voltaire collection, I happened upon a book by a contemporary author (I was so shocked I almost torched it on my gothic candelabra, until I realized it was 7 years overdue at the public library). Quelle horror! I gave it a glance and realized it was written by a young man named David Foster Wallace, and since all respectable authors and serial killers go by three names, I thought I would give it a shot (and maybe it might even be an autobiography about a serial killer!)

Turns out it wasn't, but it was still great. David Foster Wallace is an author everyone should know about by now, but for some reason, even when I'm at my high-falutin' literary conventions, I tend to get blank stares and tired yawns when I mention his name. He wrote the critically acclaimed Infinite Jest, which Collin Meloy is urging everyone to read right now, and he has pretty much changed the game for writing and inspired a new generation of writers with his prose and hyperkinetic, pomo style.




Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, which is also a movie that John (Jim) Kracinzky (from The Office) directed, is definitely a little more challenging than some of his other work, but also still accessible in its short story format. The basic jist of the book is an interviewer is conducting interviews with men (who also happen to be pretty hideous) and there are other stories intertwined. Actually, I'm not even sure I can explain it. Basically, this book might blow your mind or it might make you throw it against the wall and vow never to read DFW again.

All of my snarky words and hi-larious asides can't really do any of his books justice, so I'll just say it how I've been saying it: There's a reason Jim from the Office took time out from fake-boning Pam to try and make this seemingly unfilmable movie; It's really fucking good. If you need a primer to DFW (scaredy-pants), go read A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and read the cruise ship and state fair essays to see if you like his style. Otherwise, go back to ignoring one of the most exciting authors of the last half-century and reading vampire novels (though there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you do it in your OWN personal library/dungeon).