eBook Review copy; 272 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062673398
The Relive Box and Other Stories by T. C. Boyle is a highly recommended collection of twelve short stories.
Contents include:
The Relive Box: A device that allows people to revisit and relive scenes from their past slowly takes over their current lives.
She's the Bomb: A non-graduating college senior goes to desperate measures to stop the ceremony.
Are We Not Men? In a future where people custom-design children and pets through transgenic reproduction.
The Five-Pound Burrito: A magic realism tale of a man who has a vision to offer his customers a five pound burrito.
The Argentine Ant: A plague of ants invades the house a mathematician rented for his family
Surtsey: A storm is flooding the whole island and everyone is sheltered at the school.
Theft and Other Issues: A man's car is stolen with his girlfriend's dog inside it.
Subtract One Death: Death becomes too close and personal for a novelist.
You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til The Well Runs Dry): The California drought worsens and water restrictions increase.
The Designee: An elderly man falls for a scam artist's pitch.
Warrior Jesus: A man channels his anger into making disturbing comic-book superhero episodes.
The Fugitive: A man with an illness is required by authorities to wear a mask at all times.
Boyle's incredible genius is on full display in this varied collection. The topics of his stories span a vast field of topics, from technology to nature, and can be about ordinary circumstances to futuristic developments. He has the ability to capture people amid their struggles with humor, social conscious, and intelligence. This skill, combined with his strength of descriptions and the narrative voice he gives his characters, shines through in these twelve stories. I enjoyed the majority of these stories a great deal. It's always a pleasure to read a well-written short story.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
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