The 23 stories in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men include several stories of the same title whose format is an interview with an interrogator who remains nameless and whose point of view is left completely unspoken, only showing a "Q" when she asks something of the hideous man in question. These stories focus primarily on sexual misogyny and incredibly astute, seemingly convincing arguments for terrible things like rape, sexual enticement, and blatant dishonesty.
The other stories include an ironic depiction of the impenetrable loneliness of modern life, "A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life," several odes to depression and suicide, including "Death Is Not the End," "The Depressed Person," "Signifying Nothing," "Suicide as a Sort of Present," and several other stories, the unifying theme of which seems to be that modern adult life as is typically presented is simply unbearable.
Brief Interviews also includes what is perhaps Wallace's most sincere, un-ironic short story ever, "Forever Overhead," which features the very uncommon second-person narrative voice, describing your thirteenth birthday spent with sister and parents at the neighborhood pool. This story on the surface is about nothing more than a young boy waiting in line to jump from the high dive. But under the surface is a literally infinite analysis of existential philosophy, art theory and religion. The effect is transcendental, and what it says that Wallace included an intimate depiction of his own personal thoughts into a work called Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is valuable as well.
