Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

In 23 short stories, David Foster takes readers through the darkness and idiosyncratic sexuality of multiple male subjects. Some of the interviews are dull, but the ones that stand out are works of art. The collection is a masterpiece of raw emotions, dry humor, and the complexities of the male thought process.

        Each story is presented in question and answer form, with the interviewer's questions omitted from the text entirely. The way each interview is written allows the reader to truly feel like they are there, watching the egocentric male confess his twisted desires and life stories. Foster presents a witty collection that will reveal the flaws of men while simultaneously making readers feel uncomfortably entertained.

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Fight Club

In Chuck Palahniuk's book, Fight Club, male aggression rises as a new, emotional escape from the stresses of society. An underground movement forms after the unamed protagonist insomniac and a charismatic soap salesman, Tyler Durder, form an unexpected bond on an airplane. The two begin to fight each other for relief and with little time, other working class, pissed off men begin to join.

       A world with no attachment to women, anarchy, and fighting seems perfect. However, things become complicated when Durden becomes implicated in a sexual relationship with Marla Singer, a pessimistic and seductive female. While Durden's sexual actions would not typically concern the insomniac, the unnamed protagonist has previously developed an undying loathing towards Marla. The insomniacs hate for Marla will test everything that Fight Club stands for and the aberrations that are revealed will leave the reader's jaw dropped.

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Bloodchild

Award winning science fiction writer, Octavia E. Butler, brings the reader to an unknown time and place where Tlics, aliens with several limbs, dominate the human species. While some readers may look at this short story as a romance, it can also be interpreted as a horrifying tale of domestic violence and Stockholm Syndrome.

      Gan, a human boy, is raised in a household where T'Gatoi, a woman Tlic, is part of the family. If this wasn't eerie enough, then the emotional attachment and sexual relations that the two share for each other will definitely keep the reader cringing. Butler creates a relationship between the two characters that display sexual abuse, child abuse and the psychological breakdown of an innocent human child.

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Columbine

The truth behind the media interpretations and ongoing rumors is revealed when Dave Cullen tackles the complex emotions and horrific actions that were the basis of the Columbine school shooting. After ten years of gathering interviews, journals, home videos, and explicit information about the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Cullen produces a phenomenal and mind bending collection of facts that will haunt readers intensely.

        What is so dark about this book is not only the vivid descriptions of the killing spree, but the fact that Cullen gives so much information about Eric and Dylan that the reader cannot help but identify with the two killers. Cullen struggled finishing the book because he fell into a deep depression and after reading the final product, anyone can understand why.

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Choke

Victor Mancini is a charismatic, sex addicted, colonial theme park guide, and is far from your typical man. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of many infamously psychologically disturbing books, takes his readers through the life of a boy who was emotionally abused and constantly abandoned throughout his childhood and is now full grown into someone that no one would take home to Thanksgiving dinner.

        When Victor finds himself putting his mother in an elderly care facility, he also runs into trouble paying her medical bills. Victor begins to pull a scam where everyone wins. As he intentionally chokes on food, he makes his rescuers heroes and in a moment where emotions are high, Victor forms an everlasting bond with his savior- or so the "hero" assumes. Those who "save" him give him money on birthdays and holidays, as if they are responsible for the life that they so willingly and courageously rescued.

       At first glance, Victor is so psychologically disturbed that the reader is easily disgusted by his every sexual encounter and fraudulent action. Nevertheless, Palahniuk's witty way of going deeper into the mind of the outcast eventually leaves the reader feeling sympathy and admiration towards the protagonist.

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A Scanner Darkly

In this science fiction drama, Philip K. Dick introduces his readers to characters submerged in drug abuse and the paranoia that follows. Bob Arctor works as an undercover cop, under the name Fred, in a world where Substance D, better known as Death, is a drug that has made its way through the hands of almost everyone. When working undercover, Arctor socially associates himself with low key drug users in order to reach the big time distributers of Substance D. Arctor's law enforcement assignment is heavily promoted by New Path Corporation, a global recovery center. However, New Path's job to help Death abusers is close to impossible when the effects of the drug are the splitting of one's personality and the deterioration of the brain in general. While leading a double life, Arctor is simultaneously taking Death in order to submerge himself deeply undercover. The events of Arctors personality being divided when his life is already split in half is not nearly as thrilling as Dick's major twist at the end.

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