The Problem with T.C. Boyle

I have a problem with T.C. Boyle.  Every time I start a book by T.C., every time, I find myself in awe of the gorgeous writing. . . but lacking any desire to read through it to find out what story may lurk behind the facade.

Without fail.  Short stories included--though I get through those by dint of length.  Tackling what seems like the longest novel ever written right now.  I'm sure it's note--I'm certain that Julie Orringer's The Invisible Bridge holds that record--what was it, four times as long as A la recherche du temps perdu?

But When the Killing's Done is a close competitor.  Here's to hoping I get over the slump soon.

from When the Killing's Done
T. C. Boyle

It was only then that she became aware of the height of the waves coming at them, rearing black volcanoes of water that took everything out from under the boat and put it right back again, all the while blasting the windows as if there were a hundred fire trucks out there with their hoses all turned on at once. And here was the rhythm, up, down, up, and a rinse of the windows with every repetition: "Where are we?" she heard herself ask.

As I said, beautiful prose (although one is a bit put-off by "black volcanoes of water"  really?  Really? C'mon, I've seen waves and waves and waves, and none of them every said to me, "I am a volcano."  Even the great wave of Kanagawa distinguishes the two.

Comments

  1. TSApril 20, 2011 at 8:43 AM

    I pretty much agree...hard to get into his plots, although "Drop City" seemed the exception for me at least.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BeaApril 20, 2011 at 9:45 AM

    I like this book, my first by T.C. Boyle! I think his writing captures rather well how it feels to be in a smallish boat during a wind driven storm.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Angel Time--Anne Rice

Review copy received 11/04/09 From the time of its announcement, I had been looking forward to this new book by Anne Rice.  As I say in every review, I am not a die-hard Anne Rice fan.  I found Interview with a Vampire interesting and intriguing, but in hindsight, must lay much of the responsibility of the current vampire as victim and love-object obsession at its feet.  After that, I had no patience with her writing until Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. In that book I observed a kind of control and authorial voice that I had not seen in any of the books I had sampled since Interview .  So too with Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. Perhaps because of the subject matter, perhaps for other reasons, these two books seemed to witness a level of control of language and story that the other books did not.  Gone were messy florid passages that lavished two, three, four paragraphs on the description of the lace and flounce of a jabot.  These new books were sp...
Read more

Another Queen of Night

I post this because whenever I recommend to anyone the Queen of Night, I always recommend it in the Lucia Popp rendition.  It's a matter of personal taste, but what I love about this is that it is somewhat slower than the other versions and as a result, it would seem to me somewhat more difficult to perform and sustain--those high notes in which the Queen's voice becomes the Magic Flute itself are rounded, full, and deep while remaining light and airy. I have read some rather severe criticism of this ritardando; and while it may or may not reflect Mozart's intent, it is certainly within the options for staging.  It creates a real vocal showpiece from what is already a magnificent example of same. It really is an amazing example of a virtuoso composition sung by a virtuoso voice.  All of which should not be taken to mean that I do not truly appreciate the version posted earlier by Diana Damrau, it's just nice to see what a difference tempo can make. I think we can take...
Read more