T.C.Boyle - Stories
It would seem that the only things I keep writing here, are accounts of books I've read. Here's another one.
T. Coraghessan Boyle Stories
I've never read anything by T.C.Boyle before, and I suppose that starting with this collection of stories from throughout his career was a wise choice. The book is divided into Love, Death and Everything in between parts. And it is 700 pages long. I have to say that I liked the Love part the least. Somehow the Death stories were more interesting.
But to give my overall impression first: he is certainly a very talented writer. He manages to create the atmosphere with just a few words. Most of his stories are so vividly written, they almost stand out from the pages, so belivablethey are. That said, I'd like to note that Boyle's sense of humor, and oftentimes macabre humor, as well as his fantasy are very peculiar.
For example the Death part of the book deals with the death of every kind you can imagine, and some you did not think as of death too. Death is not something physical only, he explores the death of dreams, love, way of life, etc, etc..
Often times I had a feeling that the stories ended prematurely, but after thinking about them for a while, I realized, that Boyle is no more concerned with continuity and logic, than real life is. Real life takes unexpected turns, and Boyle stories too. Of cource many of his stories are way too strange to for their events to be taking plae in real life, but even than, Boyle's prose does not fail.
While reading, I sometimes thought, that his stories are very much a reflection of our times, strange, whimsical, often dark and painful and quite rarely uplifting.
As much as I liked many of the stories, some of them felt like exercises of a very talented writer. Not stories per se but an experiment in molding something coherent out of the unlikeliest pieces.
“But then, that’s the beauty of writing stories-each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason and that shape, there’s no feeling like it.”
― T.C. Boyle
T. Coraghessan Boyle Stories
I've never read anything by T.C.Boyle before, and I suppose that starting with this collection of stories from throughout his career was a wise choice. The book is divided into Love, Death and Everything in between parts. And it is 700 pages long. I have to say that I liked the Love part the least. Somehow the Death stories were more interesting.
But to give my overall impression first: he is certainly a very talented writer. He manages to create the atmosphere with just a few words. Most of his stories are so vividly written, they almost stand out from the pages, so belivablethey are. That said, I'd like to note that Boyle's sense of humor, and oftentimes macabre humor, as well as his fantasy are very peculiar.
For example the Death part of the book deals with the death of every kind you can imagine, and some you did not think as of death too. Death is not something physical only, he explores the death of dreams, love, way of life, etc, etc..
Often times I had a feeling that the stories ended prematurely, but after thinking about them for a while, I realized, that Boyle is no more concerned with continuity and logic, than real life is. Real life takes unexpected turns, and Boyle stories too. Of cource many of his stories are way too strange to for their events to be taking plae in real life, but even than, Boyle's prose does not fail.
While reading, I sometimes thought, that his stories are very much a reflection of our times, strange, whimsical, often dark and painful and quite rarely uplifting.
As much as I liked many of the stories, some of them felt like exercises of a very talented writer. Not stories per se but an experiment in molding something coherent out of the unlikeliest pieces.
“But then, that’s the beauty of writing stories-each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason and that shape, there’s no feeling like it.”
― T.C. Boyle