Redemolished Book

There are quite a few really good stories/novellas collected here (The Push of a Finger, The Four Hour Fugue, Hell Is Forever, etc.) but also some completely indifferent or simply bad stories (The Animal Fair, The Probable Man, etc.). Judging from the good stories and from the excellent novel The Stars My Destination, Bester had a rare gift of style and pizzazz. I was disappointed reading the essays and articles here because through them he comes off as a really insufferable individual. Sexism in science fiction is (so unfortunately) not surprising but still no more pleasant to discover. Bester was not a virulent misogynist but there are multiple times where he (and the people he interviews - including Woody Allen) are dismissive and disrespectful to women. And then there's the way he writes about himself. There are some authors like Graham Greene whose personal writing makes me think they would have been really fine people to talk with. Bester is not one of those. I might read The Demolished Man someday later, if I can ignore the stylistic tics that wore on me after finishing this volume.