- Gebundene Ausgabe: 320 Seiten
- Verlag: Viking Adult (21. Januar 2010)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0670021423
- ISBN-13: 978-0670021420
- Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 17 - 17 Jahre
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 23,6 x 17 x 2,8 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 5.0 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (1 Kundenrezension)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 69.943 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
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Wild Child: And Other Stories
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Kurzbeschreibung
A superb new collection from "a writer who can take you anywhere" (The New York Times)
In the title story of this rich new collection, T.C. Boyle has created so vivid and original a retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic France, that it becomes not just new but definitive: yes, this is how it must have been. The tale is by turns magical and moving, a powerful investigation of what it means to be human.
There is perhaps no one better than T.C. Boyle at engaging, shocking, and ultimately gratifying his readers while at the same time testing his characters' emotional and physical endurance. The fourteen stories gathered here display both Boyle's astonishing range and his imaginative muscle. Nature is the dominant player in many of these stories, whether in the form of the catastrophic mudslide that allows a cynic to reclaim his own humanity ("La Conchita") or the wind-driven fires that howl through a high California canyon ("Ash Monday"). Other tales range from the drama of a man who spins Homeric lies in order to stop going to work, to that of a young woman who must babysit for a $250,000 cloned Afghan and the sad comedy of a child born to Mexican street vendors who is unable to feel pain.
Brilliant, incisive, and always entertaining, Boyle's short stories showcase the mischievous humor and socially conscious sensibility that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
In the title story of this rich new collection, T.C. Boyle has created so vivid and original a retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic France, that it becomes not just new but definitive: yes, this is how it must have been. The tale is by turns magical and moving, a powerful investigation of what it means to be human.
There is perhaps no one better than T.C. Boyle at engaging, shocking, and ultimately gratifying his readers while at the same time testing his characters' emotional and physical endurance. The fourteen stories gathered here display both Boyle's astonishing range and his imaginative muscle. Nature is the dominant player in many of these stories, whether in the form of the catastrophic mudslide that allows a cynic to reclaim his own humanity ("La Conchita") or the wind-driven fires that howl through a high California canyon ("Ash Monday"). Other tales range from the drama of a man who spins Homeric lies in order to stop going to work, to that of a young woman who must babysit for a $250,000 cloned Afghan and the sad comedy of a child born to Mexican street vendors who is unable to feel pain.
Brilliant, incisive, and always entertaining, Boyle's short stories showcase the mischievous humor and socially conscious sensibility that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
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Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Was macht das Besondere einer guten Kurzgeschichte aus? Wenn ein einzelner Aspekt ins Zentrum der Handlung gerückt wird, der, auch wenn es auf den ersten Blick nicht so scheinen mag, uns alle betrifft, da er eine universelle menschliche Problematik anspricht, dann empfindet der Leser eine Kurzgeschichte als lohnend, unterhaltend, lesenswert oder schlicht und einfach als gut. T.C. Boyle, bisher eher durch seine großen Romane The Tortilla Curtain oder The Women bekannt, gelingt dieses Kunststück hier gleich mehrfach.
"Wild Child" besteht aus 13 Kurzgeschichten sowie der titelgebenden Abschlusserzählung, die aufgrund ihres Umfangs und der recht ausschweifenden Handlung den Rahmen einer Kurzgeschichte sprengt. Besonders beeindruckt haben mich die beiden Geschichten "The Lie" und "Thirteen Hundred Rats". Der Ich-Erzähler von "The Lie" erträgt es eine Tages nicht mehr, zur Arbeit gehen zu müssen und gibt daraufhin an, dass sein Baby schwer krank sei. Im weiteren Verlauf der Handlung steigert er sich immer mehr in sein Lügenkonstrukt hinein. Hier gelingt es Boyle, den tief verzweifelten Erzähler in nur wenigen Sätzen punktgenau zu analysieren: "I didn't get drunk. That would have been usual, and I didn't want to be usual" (115).
"Thirteen Hundred Rats" erzählt die Geschichte von Gerard Loomis, der sich nach dem Tod seiner Frau mehr und mehr zurückzieht und sich schließlich eine Python als Haustier zulegt, dabei aber seine wahre Affinität zu Ratten entdeckt, als er es nicht übers Herz bringt, seine Schlange mit einem dieser kleinen possierlichen Nager zu füttern. Loomis steigert sich bis zum fatalen Ende immer mehr und mehr in seine neue Leidenschaft hinein.
Menschen in Entscheidungssituationen sowie Menschen, die aus unterschiedlichen Gründen nicht mehr mit den Anforderungen des Alltags zurechtkommen, stellen das thematische Bindeglied zwischen allen Geschichten dar. Dabei gelingt es Boyle immer, den Leser auf nur wenige Seiten zu fesseln und die einzelnen Charaktere nachfühlbar zu gestalten, was die große Stärke dieser Sammlung ausmacht.
"Wild Child" besteht aus 13 Kurzgeschichten sowie der titelgebenden Abschlusserzählung, die aufgrund ihres Umfangs und der recht ausschweifenden Handlung den Rahmen einer Kurzgeschichte sprengt. Besonders beeindruckt haben mich die beiden Geschichten "The Lie" und "Thirteen Hundred Rats". Der Ich-Erzähler von "The Lie" erträgt es eine Tages nicht mehr, zur Arbeit gehen zu müssen und gibt daraufhin an, dass sein Baby schwer krank sei. Im weiteren Verlauf der Handlung steigert er sich immer mehr in sein Lügenkonstrukt hinein. Hier gelingt es Boyle, den tief verzweifelten Erzähler in nur wenigen Sätzen punktgenau zu analysieren: "I didn't get drunk. That would have been usual, and I didn't want to be usual" (115).
"Thirteen Hundred Rats" erzählt die Geschichte von Gerard Loomis, der sich nach dem Tod seiner Frau mehr und mehr zurückzieht und sich schließlich eine Python als Haustier zulegt, dabei aber seine wahre Affinität zu Ratten entdeckt, als er es nicht übers Herz bringt, seine Schlange mit einem dieser kleinen possierlichen Nager zu füttern. Loomis steigert sich bis zum fatalen Ende immer mehr und mehr in seine neue Leidenschaft hinein.
Menschen in Entscheidungssituationen sowie Menschen, die aus unterschiedlichen Gründen nicht mehr mit den Anforderungen des Alltags zurechtkommen, stellen das thematische Bindeglied zwischen allen Geschichten dar. Dabei gelingt es Boyle immer, den Leser auf nur wenige Seiten zu fesseln und die einzelnen Charaktere nachfühlbar zu gestalten, was die große Stärke dieser Sammlung ausmacht.
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RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "14 SHORT STORIES REFLECTING VARIOUS ANGLES OF THE HUMAN CONDITION"
29. Januar 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
When an author decides to write short stories as compared to full length books there are additional pressures that must be faced. How to build interesting characters and plots quickly... and how to build enough emotion in the story "and" the reader to make a certifiable climactic ending possible in a limited amount of pages. T.C. Boyle has succeeded in that quest "almost" all of the time in this collection. His very few misses are still worth reading but you're left at the end of these anomalies with "nowhere to go." (Even though the journey was enjoyable.) The stories range from a twelve-year-old girl having to testify in her Father's trial after a car accident involving drinking... to a story that zig-zags back and forth from California to the frigid Midwest. In California a woman is killing snails in her garden when a large... very real... tiger appears... simultaneously... in the Midwest a lonely midnight shift nurse gets involved with a stranger with a coonskin hat who doesn't like stray cats. Another story takes place in Mexico and centers around a young boy who can feel no pain. A kindly doctor who delivers and treats him first thinks it's parental abuse... but then finds out he has stumbled upon a scientific miracle... which unfortunately leads to a side show carnival like waste of life. There are stories that debate evolution and creation... and others that depict loneliness and abnormal pets. Fleeting fame and the highs and lows of the music industry is diagnosed with a meticulous unblinking character study.
The longest "short" story by far is "WILD CHILD" which is sixty-five pages long and is based on the true facts of "THE WILD BOY OF AVEYRON"... a young child who was abandoned in the wild with his throat slit and became an animal to survive. My favorite of them all was "LA CONCHITA" which culminates in an exhilarating adrenaline rush as a delivery boy/man who is not at all happy with the world... he delivers everything from screenplays to the valuable package he was transporting today: "THIS WAS THE KIND OF THING I HANDLED MAYBE TWO OR THREE TIMES A MONTH AT MOST-AND IT NEVER FAILED TO GIVE ME A THRILL. IN THE TRUNK, ANCHORED FIRMLY BETWEEN TWO BIG BLOCKS OF STYROFOAM, WAS A HUMAN LIVER PACKED IN A BAG OF ICE SLURRY INSIDE A BUD LIGHT FUN-IN-THE-SUN COOLER, AND IF THAT SOUNDS RIDICULOUS, I'M SORRY." This delivery takes place in a driving rain storm which makes his normal bursts of unconscionable speed very dangerous... and then there is a giant mud slide. Bodies are buried alive and traffic is at a standstill. At the hospital that is awaiting his delivery... seconds are ticking off the clock of life for the recipient... and a frantic knock on his mud-locked car by an overwrought unknown woman... changes this heretofore soulless driver... into the epitome of the "human-condition". Your heart will be pounding as your hands can't stop from turning to the next page.
This is a well written collection that many times leaves you alone with your own thoughts as to how the story really ends... because the real culmination could have gone either way. Unfortunately there are one or two stories that just leave you... but you will be glad you invested your time and money in this book.
The longest "short" story by far is "WILD CHILD" which is sixty-five pages long and is based on the true facts of "THE WILD BOY OF AVEYRON"... a young child who was abandoned in the wild with his throat slit and became an animal to survive. My favorite of them all was "LA CONCHITA" which culminates in an exhilarating adrenaline rush as a delivery boy/man who is not at all happy with the world... he delivers everything from screenplays to the valuable package he was transporting today: "THIS WAS THE KIND OF THING I HANDLED MAYBE TWO OR THREE TIMES A MONTH AT MOST-AND IT NEVER FAILED TO GIVE ME A THRILL. IN THE TRUNK, ANCHORED FIRMLY BETWEEN TWO BIG BLOCKS OF STYROFOAM, WAS A HUMAN LIVER PACKED IN A BAG OF ICE SLURRY INSIDE A BUD LIGHT FUN-IN-THE-SUN COOLER, AND IF THAT SOUNDS RIDICULOUS, I'M SORRY." This delivery takes place in a driving rain storm which makes his normal bursts of unconscionable speed very dangerous... and then there is a giant mud slide. Bodies are buried alive and traffic is at a standstill. At the hospital that is awaiting his delivery... seconds are ticking off the clock of life for the recipient... and a frantic knock on his mud-locked car by an overwrought unknown woman... changes this heretofore soulless driver... into the epitome of the "human-condition". Your heart will be pounding as your hands can't stop from turning to the next page.
This is a well written collection that many times leaves you alone with your own thoughts as to how the story really ends... because the real culmination could have gone either way. Unfortunately there are one or two stories that just leave you... but you will be glad you invested your time and money in this book.
13 von 14 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Boyle offers readers keen observations and robust storytelling
1. Februar 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Although T.C Boyle's novels have really run the gamut of subject matter, the one thing they all have in common is their author's captivating storytelling approach, which merges the conventional with the unexpected in style and substance. Among the strongest of Boyle's works have been those that take an unusual perspective on historical figures --- Frank Lloyd Wright, Harvey Kellogg, Alfred Kinsey, etc. --- using fiction to offer fresh, contemporary insights on real-life characters from the past.
Similarly, the title story of Boyle's newest story collection, WILD CHILD, is probably the strongest of these pieces. It relates the story of the "Wild Boy of Aveyron," the feral child discovered in the French woods and slowly "civilized" over a number of years. I confess that I knew the tale mostly because of a couple of excellent children's book accounts published several years ago. However, Boyle's story of Victor is simultaneously more graphic and more tender as readers are left to reflect on what is gained --- and lost --- through Victor's "taming." Similarly, in "Sin Dolor," a doctor becomes obsessed with a young patient who apparently has no sensitivity to pain --- but becomes horrified when the boy's own father exploits his child's freakishness to turn a buck.
As in his previous collection, TOOTH AND CLAW, WILD CHILD often focuses --- as in the title story --- on the places where the so-called natural world intersects with the human one. In the disturbing "Thirteen Hundred Rats," a grieving man distorts the advice of well-meaning acquaintances who advise him to get a pet. He buys a snake, but finds that he has a more visceral connection to the rats he purchases to feed his python. In "Admiral," a couple who is too rich for their own good clone their beloved deceased Afghan hound and spend all their time trying to ensure that their new dog's life will replicate their old one's exactly --- and the dog-sitter they hire takes their advice to heart. In "Question 62," two sisters on opposite coasts contend with their own questions about the proper place for "wild" animals.
Other stories explore --- often in gut-wrenching terms --- the moral quandaries of contemporary life. In "The Lie," a young father, desperate to avoid work and exhausted by the drudgery of new parenthood, tells his co-workers that the reason he hasn't come into the office recently is that his infant daughter has died. In "Hands On," a woman embarking on her first plastic surgery procedure develops an unhealthy fixation on the man she thinks can "fix" her.
Throughout, Boyle offers readers keen observations and robust storytelling. Frequently, his stories seem infused with the landscapes of California and South America. Just as often, though, they take place in a geographically generic suburban environment that could be anywhere. Contrasting the extreme, often violent realms of the natural world with the sterile, controlling, lifeless human environment results in powerful commentaries and indelible images --- exactly what the short story is best designed for.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Similarly, the title story of Boyle's newest story collection, WILD CHILD, is probably the strongest of these pieces. It relates the story of the "Wild Boy of Aveyron," the feral child discovered in the French woods and slowly "civilized" over a number of years. I confess that I knew the tale mostly because of a couple of excellent children's book accounts published several years ago. However, Boyle's story of Victor is simultaneously more graphic and more tender as readers are left to reflect on what is gained --- and lost --- through Victor's "taming." Similarly, in "Sin Dolor," a doctor becomes obsessed with a young patient who apparently has no sensitivity to pain --- but becomes horrified when the boy's own father exploits his child's freakishness to turn a buck.
As in his previous collection, TOOTH AND CLAW, WILD CHILD often focuses --- as in the title story --- on the places where the so-called natural world intersects with the human one. In the disturbing "Thirteen Hundred Rats," a grieving man distorts the advice of well-meaning acquaintances who advise him to get a pet. He buys a snake, but finds that he has a more visceral connection to the rats he purchases to feed his python. In "Admiral," a couple who is too rich for their own good clone their beloved deceased Afghan hound and spend all their time trying to ensure that their new dog's life will replicate their old one's exactly --- and the dog-sitter they hire takes their advice to heart. In "Question 62," two sisters on opposite coasts contend with their own questions about the proper place for "wild" animals.
Other stories explore --- often in gut-wrenching terms --- the moral quandaries of contemporary life. In "The Lie," a young father, desperate to avoid work and exhausted by the drudgery of new parenthood, tells his co-workers that the reason he hasn't come into the office recently is that his infant daughter has died. In "Hands On," a woman embarking on her first plastic surgery procedure develops an unhealthy fixation on the man she thinks can "fix" her.
Throughout, Boyle offers readers keen observations and robust storytelling. Frequently, his stories seem infused with the landscapes of California and South America. Just as often, though, they take place in a geographically generic suburban environment that could be anywhere. Contrasting the extreme, often violent realms of the natural world with the sterile, controlling, lifeless human environment results in powerful commentaries and indelible images --- exactly what the short story is best designed for.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
4 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
All in All
15. Juni 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
All in all, the stories are good reads. For the most part the quality is there, but long stretches look like something a talented college undergrad could write. There's a lack of planning in some stories; they seem to jump along with little underlying structure.
Having said that, I'll still recommend the book because some of the stories are outstanding. It's something like a CD with fourteen tracks (fourteen stories here), and you only really like four of them, but the others are okay.
"Balto" is about lying under oath. In this case it's a twelve-year-old girl who is pressured to lie to help get her father out of trouble. I wondered how the child would handle it right to the end. "Question 62" is about animal rights and wrongs and a tiger that chooses a strange place to nap. "Ash Monday" is a clever tale about revenge and how it comes in many forms.
Easily the best story is "Wild Child." It's about a boy, eight or nine, who is discovered in 1797 France. It seems he had been abandoned several years before and had managed to survive like a wild beast in the forest. He lived on things like frogs, snails, berries, and raw potatoes that he dug out by hand from farmers' fields before he slipped back into the woods. Eventually he ends up in the hands of people who see him as possible evidence in modern man's debate about innate human qualities: in a "state of nature" is man basically good? Are humans born with certain inclinations, or is that "slate" really clean? Incredibly, the story was based on the actual discovery of such a child and the events that ensued.
Having said that, I'll still recommend the book because some of the stories are outstanding. It's something like a CD with fourteen tracks (fourteen stories here), and you only really like four of them, but the others are okay.
"Balto" is about lying under oath. In this case it's a twelve-year-old girl who is pressured to lie to help get her father out of trouble. I wondered how the child would handle it right to the end. "Question 62" is about animal rights and wrongs and a tiger that chooses a strange place to nap. "Ash Monday" is a clever tale about revenge and how it comes in many forms.
Easily the best story is "Wild Child." It's about a boy, eight or nine, who is discovered in 1797 France. It seems he had been abandoned several years before and had managed to survive like a wild beast in the forest. He lived on things like frogs, snails, berries, and raw potatoes that he dug out by hand from farmers' fields before he slipped back into the woods. Eventually he ends up in the hands of people who see him as possible evidence in modern man's debate about innate human qualities: in a "state of nature" is man basically good? Are humans born with certain inclinations, or is that "slate" really clean? Incredibly, the story was based on the actual discovery of such a child and the events that ensued.
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