In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence.

Wallace’s stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are ‘The Depressed Person,’ a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman’s mental state; ‘Adult World,’ which reveals a woman’s agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and ‘Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,’ a dark, hilarious series of imagined interviews with men on the subject of their relations with women.

Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the absurd, the surprising, and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will enthrall DFW fans, and provides a perfect introduction for new readers.

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"A host of talented narrators and actors-including television actors John Krasinski and Christopher Meloni-deliver nuanced performances of the late Wallace's classic. But it's the author himself who steals the show: his gentle, almost dreamy voice unlocks the elaborate syntax and releases the immense feeling concealed by the comedy and labyrinthine sentences. While the various narrators ably capture the essence of the text, Wallace's renditions of such stories as "Forever Overhead" and "Death Is Not the End" are transcendent. Essential listening for Wallace fans and a fine introduction for newcomers."
Publishers Weekly, Publishers Weekly
The name of this collection of stories is slightly misleading, given the talent and likability of the cast of narrators who bring the late Wallace's work to life. Each of the performers, including actors John Krasinski, Will Forte, Malcolm Goodwin, and Bobby Cannavale, delivers a powerful reading that is as imaginative as the collection itself.... Krasinski, who directed the film adaptation of the book, is especially fine, reading with a stern, intellectual edge that is at once witty and unabashed. As a whole, each narrator complements the unique work he delivers.
Publishers Weekly

On Sale: Sep 8, 2009
Publisher: Hachette Audio
ISBN-13: 9781600247385

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David Foster Wallace

About the Author

David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962 and raised in Illinois, where he was a regionally ranked junior tennis player. He received bachelor of arts degrees in philosophy and English from Amherst College and wrote what would become his first novel, The Broom of the System, as his senior English thesis. He received a masters of fine arts from University of Arizona in 1987 and briefly pursued graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University. His second novel, Infinite Jest, was published in 1996. Wallace taught creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College, and published the story collections Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Oblivion, the essay collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster. He was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Whiting Writers’ Award, and was appointed to the Usage Panel for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He died in 2008. His last novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011.

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David Foster Wallace

About the Author