After the Plague: and Other Stories [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

*Starred Review* Boyle is not only a master literary craftsman but also profoundly attuned to the here and now, writing with sharp wit, supple imagination, and acute emotional sensitivity about the peculiarities of our densely populated, technology addled, and precarious world. His eight novels, including A Friend of the Earth (2000), constitute a smart, provocative, and rollicking body of outward-looking work that is more than matched by the power of his superb short stories. Five previous collections were gathered together in the knockout volume, T. C. Boyle Stories (1998), and now a new assemblage arrives that is even more remarkable than its predecessors. Here Boyle burrows deeply into the psyches of disparate characters in crisis, balancing his gift for vigorous description with insights into seemingly inexplicable behavior, moments when a person crashes through the guardrail of reason. In "She Wasn't Soft," the surfer-bum boyfriend of a fanatic amateur athlete, stoked by suppressed resentment, does exactly the wrong thing, as does the young, fresh-out-of-rehab protagonist in "Killing Babies," a steadily escalating, many-faceted story featuring a rabid mob of anti-abortion protesters. A connoisseur of the absurd and the macabre, Boyle is intrigued with new forms of mania. "Friendly Skies" is a creepy rendering of air rage. "Peep Hall" is a sweet brave-new-world love story about an admirer of a young woman who lives in a house rigged with cameras to provide cyber-voyeurs with 24-hour Internet access. Observant, empathic, and fresh, Boyle's stories affirm literature's vital and abiding role in our culture as the lights flicker on and off and dot-coms fizzle and die. Donna Seaman
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In his sixth collection of short stories, Boyle presents a series of wickedly ironic, sometimes poignant, sometimes darkly humorous tales that speak directly to the human condition and to a variety of contemporary social issuesfrom abortion to Internet voyeur cams, from railway killers to air rage. Among the best are a wonderfully crafted tale about an elderly widowa beautiful old lady clothed in catsand another about an ex-rocker, ex-actor, surf-shop owner who finally loses his cool when faced with three teenage harassers and a smug jewel thief. Then there are the Black and White Sisters who seem determined to eliminate all color in their lives. Somewhat out of context, but no less touching, is the story of an Italian immigrant farmer who in 1905 purchases, sight unseen, 70 acres of California wasteland and loses his love but keeps on digging, never losing his vision of a better future. The final and title story focuses on four survivors of a disease-induced apocalypsea classic tale of can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em that leaves one smiling in spite of the circumstances. All in all this is classic Boyle, a work to be embraced by his enthusiasts and one that belongs in most collections of serious fiction.
-David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Hailed as one of the best short story writers of his generation, T.C. Boyle presents sixteen stories--nine of which appeared in The New Yorker--that highlight the evolving excellence of his inventive, modern, and wickedly witty style. In After the Plague, Boyle exhibits his maturing themes through an amazing array of subjects in a range of emotional keys. He taps today's headlines, from air rage ("Friendly Skies") to abortion doctors ("Killing Babies"), and delves into more naturalistic themes of quiet power and passion, from a tale of first love ("The Love of My Life") to a story about confronting old age ("Rust"). Combining joy and humor with the dark, intense scenarios that Boyle's audience has come to love, After the Plague reveals a writer at the top of his form.

T.C. Boyle is the author of eight novels and six short story collections, all available from Penguin. His 1987 novel, World's End, won the PEN/Faulkner Award. In 1999 he received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. His short stories appear regularly in such magazines as The New Yorker, Granta, Esquire, and Playboy.