bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan) (03/12/85)
T. Coraghessan Boyle wrote a very good novel called "Water Music." There was nothing particularly great about it, but it's well worth reading. I'm now reading his "Descent of Man & Other Stories." I've only read three stories so far but they're all very good. Very imaginative and offbeat. In his novel, Boyle's style was definitely his own. His short stories remind me a little of Donald Barthelme, but I don't know yet if that's because of the similarity in style or the similarity in subject matter. -- Bob Kaplan "Where is it written that we must destroy ourselves?"
wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) (03/16/85)
(Mild spoiler) I second the motion; T. C. Boyle is a lot of fun. I like ALL the stories in "Descent Of Man," especially the title story (about Jane Good, who works (of course) with chimpanzees and her relationship with one of her subjects; it's narrated by her POSSSLQ, who she affectionately refers to as 'potpie'), a story about a man trying to get into an all-women's restaurant who decides to make the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the story to attain his goal, and the story about the beer can collector's search for a can of Quetzalcoatl Lite, the brew of the ancient Aztecs. "Water Music" is also fun; it's about the fictional adventures of Mungo Parks in Africa. Mungo Parks was a real-life 18th (?) century explorer. His latest novel, "Budding Prospects: A Pastoral" is about some wild and crazy California types trying to raise marijuana in the hills. Unfortunately, I don't find B. P. as rewarding a read as his short stories or W. M.