Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

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What Hacker News says

• mplanchard · Aug 18, 2019 · Recommends

  For the GP, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a great collection of short stories and a nice way to get introduced to Wallace without having to go whole hog into something like Infinite Jest. That being said, I also very much enjoyed his first…

  on “David Foster Wallace’s Pen Pal” ↗
• mbrock · Apr 4, 2010 · Recommends

  …are relevant in a deep, basic human sense for lots of (confused, lost) people. (Granted, his nonfiction pieces are what I like best -- every essay in A Supposedly Fun Thing is gold -- still, Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Infinite Jest are powerful books, though sometimes tragic on many levels.)

  on “Why I read fiction” ↗
• steve-benjamins · Oct 2, 2014 · Recommends

  I really, really love David Foster Wallace and I've also never gotten through Infinite Jest. If anyone is interested in reading DWF I'd recommend checking out his shorter fiction (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) or non-fiction (A Supposedly Fun Thing) if Infinite Jest (rightfully) seems intimidating :)

  on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗
• roymurdock · Dec 20, 2015 · Recommends

  "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" is also a great starting point if you want to get a sense of his darkly humorous fiction. Although, he embellishes and invents so many things in his non-fiction pieces that they straddle the line pretty…

  on “YC's 2015 Reading List” ↗
• vo2maxer · Dec 16, 2019 · Mentions

  …Gracq Historia De España Contada Para Escépticos by Juan Eslava Galán Diez Lecciones Sobre Los Clásicos by Piero Boitani Waiting For The Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee 97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrere Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace El Zafarrancho Aquel De Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda

  on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗
• monadic2 · Jul 27, 2020 · Mentions

  …there’s a grain of truth to this, you’re neglecting the simultaneous experience of self consciousness of this at the same time. I believe there’s a David Foster Wallace short story about this somewhere in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

  on “Appearances vs. Experiences: What Makes Us Happy” ↗
• 3n4n · Dec 26, 2025 · Mentions

  …This year was slow for me reading-wise. Not a whole lot: - The Blind Owl / Sadegh Hedayat - Prince of Annwn (Mabinogion Tetralogy #1) - Norse Mythology / Gaiman: read it before accusations came out - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men / David F Wallace - A Connecticut Yankee ... / Mark Twain (not yet finished)

  on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗
• stnmtn · Sep 21, 2016 · Mentions

  …the meaning of it, wish I could figure out where I read it Edit: I found it! apparently, it's from a 1990 movie I've never seen nor heard of, which doesn't sound right. I'm like 80% sure I read it in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men "You see, there's nothing to do anymore. Everything decent's been done. All the great themes have been used up. Turned into theme parks. So I don't really find it exactly cheerful to be living in the…

  on “I Used to Be a Human Being” ↗
• ericmcer · Sep 21, 2019 · Mentions

  …financial support from parents they revile, bare feet, obscure import religions, indifferent hygiene, a gooey and somewhat canned vocabulary, the whole predictable peace-and-love post-Hippie diction“ -Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

  on “Dark crystals: the brutal reality behind a booming wellness craze” ↗