Tooth and Claw: and Other Stories
by T. Coraghessan Boyle
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A collection of 14 stories proves that Boyle has his finger firmly on the pulse of our times. They offer a vivid collage of millennial American life and include: 'Dogology; Here Comes; Kind Assassin; Jubilation, ' and 'Up Against the Wall, ' to name just a few.Tags
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Member Reviews
This was next up on the T.C. Boyle short story collection lineup when I want to dip into a couple stories when I'm being indecisive on what to read. At least I dip into the next collection in the chronological lineup. So some of these stories I have read quite a while ago now. It's another collection that is less experimental than his earlier stories. Now they are leaning more animalistic or ecological. So this is Boyle's sixth story collection and probably my least favorite of the six so far, but they are still very very good stories. There is just a high bar at this point. Less dark than 'After the Plague' but some of the stories here kind of left things hanging when the main plot point seemed to start, which might be why I consider show more some of these not as good. If my main complaint with stories is "not long enough" then I guess that is a good complaint to have about writing. Still, spectacular sentences in these solid stories. show less
Engaging stories (with the audiobook read by the author) about the interplay of humanity with nature. The title story finds a man discovering the wild in a wild cat: following this is a story about a woman's journey alone on horseback through the early US as she discovers the power of water in nature; there's a funny story about the ultimate master controlled community; lots of stories revolve around men discovering the wild power of alcohol; and the collection ends with what T. C. Boyle says is his most autobiographical story about a young man - what would today be called a slacker- who becomes a teacher merely to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War and who discovers the wilds of both drugs and floundering high school students.
The stories collected in this volume under the title Tooth and claw, and other stories did not interest me at all. I have read other work by T. C. Boyle with pleasure, and therefore really tried to like this collection of his fiction. I read some, mainly negative reviews, and went back to stories that were praised, or considered relatively good by other readers, but even those stories had no meaning for me. There was not any way, except for the first story, to create a clear meaning for individual stories, and I could not establish an overarching theme.
Nothing seems to be wrong with the writing; it is just that the stories seem to hold no interest.
Nothing seems to be wrong with the writing; it is just that the stories seem to hold no interest.
As with all his short story collection, Boyle creates many compelling worlds, characters and situations. And the beauty of short stories is that, although some may not pan out over the long haul, they are perfect for their own little niche of 15-20 pages.
I thought "When I Woke Up...," "Jubilation," and "Chicxulub" were exceptionally good. The rest were all strong but didn't grab me quite like Boyle sometimes can.
I almost always enjoy TC Boyle's short stories. this was no exception.
need to read--review pending
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Author Information
104+ Works 28,141 Members
T. C. Boyle was born Thomas John Boyle in Peekskill, New York on December 2, 1948. He received a B.A. in English and history from SUNY Potsdam in 1968, a MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and a Ph.D. degree in nineteenth century British literature from the University of Iowa in 1977. He has been a member of the English show more department at the University of Southern California since 1978. He has written over 20 books including After the Plague, Drop City, The Inner Circle, Tooth and Claw, The Human Fly, Talk Talk, The Women, Wild Child, and When the Killing's Done. He has received numerous awards including the PEN/Faulkner Award for best novel of the year for World's End; the PEN/Malamud Prize in the short story for T. C. Boyle Stories; and the Prix Médicis Étranger for best foreign novel in France for The Tortilla Curtain. His title's Sam Miguel and The Harder They Caome made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) T. Coraghessan Boyle is the best-selling author of "T.C. Boyle Stories," "Riven Rock," "The Tortilla Curtain," "Without a Hero," "The Road to Wellville," "East Is East," "If the River Was Whiskey," "World's End" (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award), "Greasy Lake," "Budding Prospects," "Water Music," & "Descent of Man" (all available from Penguin). His fiction regularly appears in major American magazines, including "The New Yorker," "GQ," "The Paris Review," "Playboy," & "Esquire." He lives in Santa Barbara, California. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Histoires cruelles
- Original title
- Tooth and Claw
- Original publication date
- 2005
- Epigraph
- The Simiadae then branched off into two great stems, the New World and the Old World monkeys; and from the latter at a remote period, Man, the wonder and the glory of the universe, proceeded. -Charles Darwin, The Descent of ... (show all)Man
- Dedication
- For Rob Jordan and Valerie Wong
- First words
- The man I want to tell you about, the one I met at the bar at Jimmy's Steak House, was on a tear.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Finally I got up and turned on the TV, then settled back in my father's chair as the jets came in low and the village went up in flames.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Popularity
- 54,867
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.85)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- ASINs
- 4
