T.C. Boyle's Omnibus of Oddities

The dust jacket bears an amazingly striking picture of author T.C. Boyle: rebellish earrings, a shock of red hair, a devilish goatee and those piercing green eyes. A compilation of his previous four collections of short stories (Descent of Man, Greasy Lake, If the River Was Whiskey and Without a Hero) plus a smattering of new stories, Stories holds in one volume the complete spectrum of Boyle's writing. The satiric and the strange, the touching and the tender, the stories always have one trait in common: Boyle's characteristically piercing view of humanity.

Possessing an eye for the paradox of incongruity, Boyle places some well known figures from both literature and real life into out-of-context situations in his stories ("Robert Jordan in Nicaragua," "I Dated Jane Austen," "Hard Sell"). Yet somehow out of a situation which initially seems as gimmicky as Dennis Rodman comes dazzling observations on life. In "I Dated Jane Austen", the fraility of dating is shown in a stunning expose of the narrator's exploits with the famous 19th century author. The Ayatollah Khomeini is the subject of an image makeover in "Hard Sell."

"Robert Jordan in Nicaragua" shows such a perspective with Boyle's consciousness of the contemporary political times. The famous Hemingway character finds that dealings with the contra-contras and the contras are not so very valiant or elegant as one would imagine. Much like the dealings of the government in the Reagan years with Nicaragua, Boyle points out that America is as unsuited for the revolutions in Central America as Robert Jordan. Unfortunately, America and Robert Jordan both tangle with Central America, and both times the result is disastrous.

In T.C. Boyle's mind, everything relates back to either "love," "death" or "everything in between." He divides his stories into those three major sections, each in chronological order. For example, in the death section, the development of his writing seems to progress through the pages from the wonderfully simple satire of "The Hitman" to the long, more tragic "Mexico." "The Hitman" is composed of short clipped statements concerning key points in the hitman's life. Continuing with his theme of incongruity, the hitman has donned a black mask since childhood and "wastes" his parents. Nevertheless, when the hitman marries and has a child, Boyle makes a statement about the cyclical nature of life and death for the most grim of professions. Also representative of many of the stories found in the volume, "Mexico" is a story Boyle presents to evoke pathos without overly dramatizing the tragedy. The rapidly spiraling life of a lonely man in Mexico is presented through the eyes of the man as he drinks himself indirectly to death. Yet the tone Boyle uses for the narrative is not passionate or deploringly depressive; instead he fills the pages with a sullen sadness that suffocates instead of ignites.

T.C. Boyle demonstrates his virtuosity in all kinds of short stories. Coupled with his novels, Boyle can claim the title of jack-of-all-trades. The compilation shows a wide range and proves to be enjoyable to the point of salivating for this jack-of-all-trade's next collection of short stories.