Thomas Coraghessan Boyle (born December 2, 1948) is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published nineteen novels and more than 150 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988,[3] for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York.
T. C. Boyle
T. C. Boyle at the Leipzig Book Fair 2009
Born
Thomas John Boyle (1948-12-02) December 2, 1948 (age 75) Peekskill, New York, U.S.
In Understanding T. C. Boyle, Paul William Gleason writes, "Boyle's stories and novels take the best elements of Carver's minimalism, Barth's postmodern extravaganzas, García Márquez's magical realism, O'Connor's dark comedy and moral seriousness, and Dickens' entertaining and strange plots and brings them to bear on American life in an accessible, subversive, and inventive way."[6]
Many of Boyle's novels and short stories explore the baby boom generation, its appetites, joys, and addictions. His themes, such as the often-misguided efforts of the male hero and the slick appeal of the anti-hero, appear alongside brutal satire, humor, and magical realism. His fiction also explores the ruthlessness and the unpredictability of nature and the toll human society unwittingly takes on the environment.[7] His novels include World's End (1987, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction); The Road to Wellville (1993);[8] and The Tortilla Curtain (1995, winner of France's Prix Médicis étranger).[9][citation needed]
Boyle has published eleven collections of short stories, including Descent of Man (1979), Greasy Lake (1985), If the River Was Whiskey (1989), and Without a Hero (1994). His short stories frequently appear in the major American magazines, including The New Yorker,[10]Harper's,[11]Esquire,[12]The Atlantic Monthly[13] and Playboy,[14] as well as on the radio show Selected Shorts.[15]
Boyle is married to Karen Kvashay. They have three children and live in Montecito near Santa Barbara, California.[2] Their home was imperiled in the 2017 Thomas Fire which consumed 440 square miles and over 1,000 structures in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, killing a firefighter in the latter. The fires denuded drought-stricken hillsides of vegetation and torrential rains in January 2018 subsequently dislodged immense boulders and precipitated mudslides which destroyed over one hundred homes and killed almost two dozen of his neighbors. Over 10,000 people were evacuated from Montecito as a result of the sequence of natural disasters. Boyle extensively documented both calamities on his website, and additionally in an article for The New Yorker.[18]
Awards and honorsedit
Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fiction Award for the Short Story, 1977.
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1977.
The St. Lawrence Award for Fiction, best story collection of the year, 1980 (Descent of Man).
The Paris Review's Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, 1981 ("Mungo Among the Moors," excerpt from Water Music).
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, 1983.
The Paris Review's John Train Humor Prize, 1984 ("The Hector Quesadilla Story").
Commonwealth of California, Silver Medal for Literature, 55th Annual Awards, 1986 (Greasy Lake).
Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review, one of the 16 best books of the year, 1987 (World's End).
T.C. Boyle Stories II (2013), compiles three volumes of short fiction (After the Plague, Tooth and Claw, Wild Child) with a new collection of 14 stories entitled "A Death in Kitchawank"
The Relive Box & Other Stories (2017)
I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022)
List of storiesedit
The following list is a selection of the many short stories Boyle has written:
Title
Year
First published
Reprinted/collected
Notes
"My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain"
2010
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (January 2010). "My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain". Harper's. Vol. 320, no. 1916. pp. 57–64.
"A Death in Kitchawank" (2013)
"The Night of the Satellite"
2013
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (April 15, 2013). "The Night of the Satellite". The New Yorker. Vol. 89, no. 9. pp. 62–69.
"A Death in Kitchawank" (2013)
"Sic Transit"
2013
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (October 2013). "Sic Transit". Harper's. Vol. 327, no. 1961. pp. 85–94.
"A Death in Kitchawank" (2013)
"The Relive Box"
2014
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (March 17, 2014). "The Relive Box". The New Yorker. Vol. 90, no. 4. pp. 58–65.
The Relive Box & Other Stories (2017)
"Are We Not Men?"
2016
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (November 7, 2016). "Are We Not Men?". The New Yorker. Vol. 92, no. 36. pp. 56–63.
The Relive Box & Other Stories (2017)
"Asleep at the Wheel"
2019
Boyle, T. Coraghessan (February 11, 2019). "Asleep at the Wheel". The New Yorker. Vol. 94, no. 48. pp. 54–61.
I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022)
Edited anthologyedit
DoubleTakes (2004, co-edited with K. Kvashay-Boyle)
^O'Neill, Molly (1993-06-02). "AT BREAKFAST WITH – T. Coraghessan Boyle – Biting the Hand That Once Fed Battle Creek". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
^"Penguin Reading Guides | The Tortilla Curtain | T. C. Boyle". Us.penguingroup.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-30. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
^"authorName:"T. Coraghessan Boyle" : Archive". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
^"Boyle, T. Coraghessan (Harper's Magazine)". Harpers.org. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
^BOYLE, T. C. "WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? | Esquire | MARCH '19". Esquire – The Complete Archive. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
^Boyle, T. C. (13 April 2010). "The Silence". The Atlantic.
^Boyle, T.C. "Not Me". Playboy. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
^"TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES WITH A.M. HOMES AND T.C. BOYLE". Symphony Space. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
^Pearl, Nancy; Schwager, Jeff (2020). The Writer's Library.
^"T. C. Boyle: By the Book". The New York Times. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
^After the mudslides, an absence in Montecito, The New Yorker, T. C. Boyle, January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^The Library of Congress catalog record has a 1981 copyright date, but Boyle's website points out that the novel was released in 1982.
^Haunting Legend Of Green Swamp, Orlando Sentinel, Kevin Spear, October 31, 1991. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^Travers, Peter (December 29, 1994). "The Best and Worst Movies of 1994". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
^Maslin, Janet (December 27, 1994). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; The Good, Bad and In-Between In a Year of Surprises on Film". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
^Pickle, Betsy (December 30, 1994). "Searching for the Top 10... Whenever They May Be". Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. 3.
^Lovell, Glenn (December 25, 1994). "The Past Picture Show the Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- a Year Worth's of Movie Memories". San Jose Mercury News (Morning Final ed.). p. 3.
External linksedit
Official website
Elizabeth E. Adams (Summer 2000). "T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Art of Fiction No. 161". Paris Review. Summer 2000 (155).
"Author of Drop City talks with Robert Birnbaum", identity theory, March 19, 2003
The T. Coraghessan Boyle Research Center (in English, French, German, and Dutch)