BREAM GIVES ME HICCUPS & OTHER STORIES - Jesse Eisenberg

Long a fan of actor Jesse Eisenberg, I was truly looking forward to this short story collection; Eisenberg's sense of humor, while at times left-of-center (one of the reasons I like him), is also often intelligent, very funny, and on-target.  And for about the first third of the book, in particular a wonderful story about a boy and his dysfunctional relationship with his mother - which the kid recounts by rating various places they go together (the gem of the collection) - I was hooked.  But the middle third became, I felt, pretentious and trite, more like streams of consciousness (often by people with some real emotional issues) than anything resembling short fiction, and sad to say this "theme" continued through a huge chunk of the book, so much so I had a hard time slogging through it up until things got interesting again, maybe the last twenty pages or so.  In that huge rough patch, it was just too many characters in a row who were, essentially, slightly altered versions of the same emotionally messed-up, often angry-to-the-point-of-sociopathic people (the gal in college, constantly writing letters to her old high school counselor, is particularly intriguing yet annoying at the same time) with the same failed views (and histories) of bad relationships, that Eisenberg tries fashioning around different scenarios or (wink-wink) clever set-ups that never fully get off the ground.  Hard to explain, but oh-so disappointing (and I really - really - wanted to like this, too) ... though I'd go back and re-read the first few stories anytime.  **

Note: I received a free ARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.