Genre: Book/Stories
Grade: B
Notable People: T. Coraghessan Boyle
Title: The Relive Box and Other Stories
Review: Several years ago I noted in a review that T. C. Boyle was one of our finest writers of short stories after reading several such volumes. I am somewhat perplexed by this set of stories. Boyle has always been one our darkest and most brooding writers (check out his picture which looks like a sort of psychopath from a David Lynch film)….but this set is way too dark and too brooding even for me. The title story is a gem as are few others- but some of them are so despairing I had trouble finishing them. Boyle lives with monsters and with extremely desperate people who make one bad decision after another…nobody has relationships in these stories. They are very well written..…the man knows how to compose….but too little heart for me.