T.C. Boyle

T.C. Boyle’s fiction used to be a reliable source for laughs, usually at the expense of his characters. His often gleefully malicious stories about yuppies, hippies, quacks, and people who share their lives with animals had the outlandish trajectory of those classic cartoons that reveled in comic brutality–amputations, anvil accidents, cruel twists of fate–visited on the deserving and undeserving alike. Of course, Boyle’s amusing abuse was generally tempered with sharp social criticism and a keen understanding of human foibles; in recent books he has been weaving subtle, dark treatises on environmental destruction, global warming, and species extinction into his tales. More and more often lately, however, Boyle’s short stories have been domestic dramas almost entirely devoid of humor, a trend that is as alarming as it is discouraging. He’s always been a charismatic and entertaining performer, though, and hopefully his sense of humor is still intact and will be on display for this reading. 2128 4th St. S., Minneapolis; 612-626-1892