Product Description
It's 2025. Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater is eking out a bleak living in southern California, managing a pop-star's private menagerie, holding some of the last surviving animals in the world. Global warming is a reality. In his youth, Ty had been so serious about environmental issues that as an ecoterrorist committed to Earth Forever! he had endangered the lives of both his daughter, Sierra, and his wife, Andrea. Now, when the past seems far behind him and he is just trying to survive in a world cursed by storm and drought, Andrea returns to his life...Frightening, funny, surreal and gripping, in A Friend of the Earth T.C. Boyle gives us a story that is both a modern morality tale, and a provocative vision of the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great First Novel
T. C. Boyle's novel, Water Music, is an amazing mix of Dickens, Heller, and Burroughs. It is a globetrotting epic of a novel that juxtaposes the lives of two wildly different characters in late 18th/early 19th century England and Africa.Mungo Park is a less than intrepid explorer who has been tasked with finding the source of the Niger River.Ned Rise is a pornographer, graverobber, and purveyor of fine caviar.

While Park hobnobs with the London elite, propelled to fame by lurid tales of a purportedly successful expedition to Africa, Rise rots in Newgate Prison. In 1805 both men went to Africa, Park as an explorer returning for one last glorious expedition, Rise as a convict.When they finally meet on an expedition intended to map the full course of the Niger River, they run into one of Park's old enemies, and this amazing story of love, sex, war, and mayhem races to an amazing conclusion.

T. C. Boyle's first book of fiction, The Descent of Man, was released in 1979 to critical acclaim.Water Music was released two years later after three years of writing.Talk Talk, Boyle's 18th book and 11th novel was released by Viking in 2006.Boyle holds a Ph.D in 19th century British literature from the University of Iowa, and teaches English at the University of Southern California.

Water Music is an excellent novel, the product of a consummate storyteller whose fluid, confident prose leaps from the page.Boyle's characters are rich and compelling, even the secondary ones. Johnson, Park's guide, was a slave sent from Africa to Carolina who became a valet to a wealthy Englishman in London, and finally was condemned to be a convict back in Africa.The only fee he demanded for his services as a guide was a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare.

In the world of Water Music, Johnson is fairly ordinary, for it is a zany world of fateful meetings, crimes of passion, and star-crossed lovers.That world is hard to leave.

Water Music is both a great story and a scathing critique of British Imperialism, and Boyles' fantastic semi-fictional Africa is a place well worth exploring.Much like the Niger River that is so central to its plot, this book twists and turns through palaces and slums, Bedouin camps and Scottish villages, but Boyle's critique of Park's missions as a "geographical missionary" never lets up.

Boyle's diction and plotting is reminiscent of another writer whose novels were both entertaining and full of social commentary, Charles Dickens, but Boyle largely avoids long passages in which nothing happens that plague Dickens' longer works.Unfortunately, Water Music drags a bit towards the end.

For readers that want to be engrossed in a truly great story, a story that is both fantastic and factual, Water Music is a great selection. ... Read more

Product Description
From the bestselling author of The Women comes an action-packed adventure about endangered animals and those who would protect them.

Principally set on the wild and sparsely inhabited Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, T. C. Boyle's powerful new novel combines pulse-pounding adventure with a socially conscious, richly humane tale regarding the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist who is spearheading the efforts to save the islands' endangered native creatures from invasive species like rats and feral pigs, which, in her view, must be eliminated. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a dreadlocked local businessman who, along with his lover, the folksinger Anise Reed, is fiercely opposed to the killing of any species whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert the plans of Alma and her colleagues. Their confrontation plays out in a series of escalating scenes in which these characters violently confront one another, contemplate acts of sabotage, court danger, and tempt the awesome destructive power of nature itself.

Boyle deepens his story by going back in time to relate the harrowing tale of Alma's grandmother, Beverly, who was the sole survivor of a 1946 shipwreck in the channel, as well as the tragic story of Anise's mother, Rita, who in the late 1970s lived and worked on a sheep ranch on Santa Cruz Island.

In dramatizing this collision between protectors of the environment and animal rights activists, Boyle is, in his characteristic fashion, examining one of the essential questions of our time: Who has the right of possession of the land, the waters, the very lives of all the creatures who share this planet with us?

When the Killing's Done will offer no transparent answers, but like The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle's classic take on illegal immigration, it will touch you deeply and put you in a position to decide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

good, but not outstanding
T.C. Boyle is a master of short fiction, and his novels can
also be outstanding ("Drop City" is probably the book to
read, even if you never open anything else by him).I've read a number
of his collections of short stories, and this one was pretty typical.
None of the stories are terribly fanciful - most of them could
really have happened, and many probably did.However, Boyle
has a terrific sense of pace, and the stories do draw you in.
Unfortunately, some of them seem to be building up toward an
end which is not all too satisfying. In any case, this is an enjoyable
collection, and certainly fun to read.

Short story lover's gold mine
I can't believe it took me so long to discover Boyle. His prose is entertaining, even if by some chance the story doesn't grab you. There's a lot of variety here. And there's not a dud among them.
"The Swift Passage of Animals" brings the mechanism of evolution into vivid focus for a man trying to impress his weekend date;
"Jubilation" is black humor at a planned community in FL;
"Chicxulub" intersperses facts about meteors hitting the earth with the story of a couple's ordeal upon hearing their daughter has been hit by a car;
"Blinded by the Light" is set in Argentina where ranchers are confronted by the dire predictions of an ozone layer scientist.

Compared to some of his earlier collections, this one is smooth and mature, but he hasn't lost the edge and talent for making the bizarre plausible.

Very enjoyable reading
Boyle's extraordinary precision with language, dark humor and believable characters are always a savory treat.This collection features the usual drunks, barflies, hipsters and mid-lifers I love in Boyle's fiction and each story has a unique voice and tone.Very enjoyable read, highly recommended.

(3.5 stars) Boyled Over
T.C. Boyle is so prolific it's insane.
This is both a blessing and a bane.

Boyle works on his craft constantly, so he can put out a quality story in no time; but this is a problem, because I don't feel like he takes the time to fully form his characters. Often different characters in different stories seem like the same person: they all speak in SAT words, they always seem to go to movies alone, they often speak with irreverent interjections while thinking to themselves. These drawbacks, especially in the stories with weak plot, produce a variable overall output, which is indeed also seen in this particular collection. TOOTH AND CLAW has some gems, but also some losers. Four of the fourteen stories I couldn't even make it through.

Another four I rated 7/10 or above -- they all had engaging plots, well-formed characters, and ringing metaphor. The best story of the collection was "Chcxulub," a tale of a teenage girl's night out and her parents' worry over her safety, with the parallel telling of the history of tragic meteor impacts on the earth. Another masterpiece is the title story, "Tooth and Claw." A young man's quest for a girlfriend is symbolized by his win of an exotic wild cat in a bar bet. When he loses one he loses the other. This is classic Boyle. (Yet, this young man, despite his participation in such a symbolic and well-told tale, goes to the movies alone. Couldn't he just do something different? Doesn't Boyle remember he used that personality trait in a different story? I guess not.)

Overall, a nice addition to one's library.

Boyle fan
I am always a fan of TC Boyle. Sometimes I wish there were more happy endings for his characters but I keep reading him so it must not be an issue. ... Read more

Product Description
Mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, The Washington Post Book World says these masterful stories mark T. Coraghessan Boyle's development from "a prodigy's audacity to something that packs even more of a wallop: mature artistry." They cover everything, from a terrifying encounter between a bunch of suburban adolescents and a murderous, drug-dealing biker, to a touching though doomed love affair between Eisenhower and Nina Khruschev. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Greasy Lake
In reading "Greasy Lake" what are we really experiencing? T.C. Boyle presents his observations of love and loss with the unclouded eye of a reporter. He captures these moments in time with exceptional prose. His lyrical use of language, the skill with which he presents the tale is fabulous, but in the end I felt that I had missed something. When I put the book down it was if I had had a delicious gourmet meal but still felt hungry. For when I closed the book, I forgot about the characters. I didn't think about what had happened to them - I didn't wonder, I didn't care.Despite that is "Greasy Lake" worth reading? Definately. TC Boyle's richness of description is worth every lucious moment.

Boyling Mad with Fun
What? You weren't aware that Eisenhower had a top-secret affair with Khrushchev's wife?Perhaps you need the vivid details of blues impresario Robert Johnson's death?And have you availed yourself of the former President's plan to snag two terms in the White House...by building a new moon?Yes, this lunacy and much more fun awaits in this file of T.C. Boyle short stories.These pieces, penned for a host of magazines (Antaeus, Antioch Review, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Iowa Review, Oui, Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and others,) were written earlier in Boyle's career, between 1979 and 1985. These are entertaining sketches of whimsical, off-beat protaganists and moments in time.An Elvis impersonator, a yuppie asparagus-crepe eater and his haunting rebel shadow, the survivalist who moves his family toMontana, a loyal Communist fighting to "hold public property sacred" in the cold Moscow winter...Boyle unfailingly delivers rare specimens in story after story.

"There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad, when you cultivated decadence like a taste.We were all dangerous characters then."These opening lines from the first story "Greasy Lake" could describe most all of the zany, complex characters who color these fifteen stories.A quick, entertaining read.

my favorite short story collection
unforgetable characters, thrilling plot, shocking humor, and a richly involving, rewarding reading experience where I cringed, and encouraged as if I were shouting at a movie screen.This book totally rules, because the author is so fearless.TCB tackles issues and characters without flinching, and he really takes care of his readers.Fast-paced, and with a stunning prose-style, this guy can do no wrong.

T.C. Boyle is one weird hombre!
If a writer of fiction can be believed, then T.C. Boyle's description of how he begins his writing routine is psycho crazy! According to him he cuts a chicken's throat, bleeds it into a bowl which he places under his desk, immerses his bare feet in the bowl and then writes until the blood feels cold. You certainly won't find this advice in any writer's how-to manual at your local library! If this is the price of new, fresh and contemporary fiction, then some might argue that a few chickens being sacrificed for art is worth the price. One of Boyle's gifts is that he is always interesting and truly original. How many contemporary authors can you really say that about today? Anyway, this collection is in my opinion one of his best. From the title story to a short sketch about the bluesman Robert Johnson, he keeps you on your toes from one short piece to the next. You never quite know what to expect with regard to Boyle's style. Another of his gifts is that he takes society's norms and conventions and manages to turn them upside down in a very entertaining fashion. With Boyle, you as the reader are always in on the joke. Many of his pieces despite their non-conventional nature have appeared in conservative men's magazines like GQ. Go figure....If you like to explore new authors, then you could hardly do better than picking up anything by this one. He is like a modern-day cross between Gogol and Kafka, but on some serious hallucinogens. If he and Dr. Hunter S. Thompson aren't friends, then they definitely should be. See for yourself why Boyle is one of the only exciting voices in contemporary fiction.

wicked and delightful
there's a playfulness in this collection that I haven't seen anywhere else.the language and the plot are like being winked at -- Boyle lets you in on the joke and he trusts that his readers are as sly and smartass as he is.

most people were probably introduced to Boyle in high school English with the title story, "Greasy Lake," and if, like my entire class, that was your favorite story all year long, you won't be disapointed.these other stories are just as accessible, bleak and funny in the coen-brothers way that only Boyle delivers. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Most Powerful Tailer in the World" by Michael Crichton
(1-56740-500-2 01A)
"Used in Evidence" by Frederick Forsyth(1-56740-500-2 01B)
"King Bee" by T. Coraghessan Boyle(1-56740-500-2 01C)
"Yossarian Survives" by Joseph Heller(1-56740-500-201D)
"A Midsummer Daydream" by Donald E. Westlake(1-56740-500-201E)

(see individual titles for more information) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Short Story IS an Art Form all its own.
THE MOST POWERFUL TAILOR IN THE WORLD: THE BEST OF PLAYBOY FICTION:An anthology of short stories published in Playboy the best of which is
THE MOST POWERFUL TAILOR IN THE WORLD a very early work by Michael Crichton about a man who has the power to set things on fire with his mind and is blackmailing the United States
and
USED IN EVIDENCE by Frederick Forsyth..a clever murder mystery set in Dublin about which I will say nothing except recommended.
and then there is
KING BEE by T. Coraghessan Boyle. A nasty story that uses the torture death of a small dog as a dramatic trick and which I personally cannot stomach. Different tastes might think otherwise.

YOSSARIAN SURVIVES by Joseph Heller a lost chapt from CATCH 22. If you think that book was anything more than a childish piece of 60s counterculture literary masterbation then this is for you.

A MIDSUMMER DAYDREAM by Donald Westlake. An amusing Damon Runyon style trifle about the box office robbery in upstate NY in which a thief on the lam is falsely accused thus putting him in the odd position of playing detective.

... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 6043. ... Read more