A New York Times Notable Book

T. C. Boyle is not easy on the eyes. He's rangy and disconcertingly tall; his hair, a frayed mass of rusty steel wool, jockeys for attention against the wild assortment of earrings that rim his ears; and his prominent goatee makes an eerie compliment to a pair of devilish eyes. Yet, somehow, one suspects Boyle's readers would be disappointed if he cut a less striking figure, for T. C. Boyle's fiction is anything but ordinary. Yes, his stories are perceptive literary portraits of human nature. But T. C. Boyle, in the tradition of such great writers as Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, is a reader's writer. He's sharp as aged cheddar, and he never writes down to his audience, but Boyle always aims to entertain. More often than not he succeeds wildly — and hilariously. Boyle clearly relishes the possibilities of our language and his delight in linguistic invention and word play is infectious. T. C. Boyle Stories, which collects all his short fiction to date (for a total of sixty-eight stories), contain some of the funniest, most outrageous — and most intelligent — satirical stories of the past quarter century, including the classic portrait of a vicious food critic ("Sorry Fugu"), an outrageous send up of our acquisitive culture ("Filthy with Things"), and the telling story of a woman so obsessed with hygiene she insists on wearing a full-body condom ("Modern Love"). This collection is perfect for any reader with a love for language, a taste for the wicked, or an appreciation for masterful storytelling. Farley, Powells.com

Twenty-five years of dazzling short stories, including seven never before published in book form, from the bestselling author of Riven Rock and The Tortilla Curtain.

T. C. Boyle is one of the most inventive and wickedly funny short story writers at work today. Over the course of twenty-five years, Boyle has built up a body of short fiction that is remarkable in its range, richness, and exuberance. His stories have won accolades for their irony and black humor, for their verbal pyrotechnics, for their fascination with everything bizarre and queasy, and for the razor-sharp way in which they dissect America's obsession with image and materialism. Gathered together here are all of the stories that have appeared in his four previous collections, as well as seven that have never before appeared in book form. Together they comprise a book of small treasures, a definitive gift for Boyle fans and for every reader ready to discover the "ferocious, delicious imagination" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) of a "vibrant sensibility fully engaged with American society" (The New York Times).

"Varied, clever, and delightful...these stories are consistent in their readability and quality." Chicago Tribune

"Boyle sketches his characters with Swiftian good humor and crisp prose; in his best work he tempers his trademark irony with a trace of empathy." The New Yorker

"He writes like a kid at a carnival, tossing off firecrackers of language that explode like Roman candles in our minds....In marking out a literary universe that is both diverse and remarkably consistent, the stories here...add up to an oeuvre all their own." The Village Voice

"The fact that I've just negotiated almost 700 pages of T.C. Boyle's short fiction...and I'm not sick to death of it attests to its overall inventiveness, flash and just plain entertainment value." Jim Shepard, The New York Times Book Review

"A fine, fat gathering of 68 stories....Boyle is of course too young for a summing-up, but this seems as good a time as any for a mid-career display of the antic wares of our most versatile and prolific radical comedian." Kirkus Reviews

" Throughout Boyle's work, real people appear in narrative out-takes that are invariably amusing and, like Boyle's more serious work, mordant, worldly and irreverent." Publishers Weekly

"Unfortunately, the thematic grouping used in his anthology emphasizes the formulaic aspects of Boyle's fiction and makes its manic inventiveness seem forced and predictable." Library Journal

"For those not yet introduced to Boyle...there is plenty of variety in this collection, showcasing the wide range of Boyle's imaginative dexterity....Terrific storytelling and amazing artistry throughout." Grace Fill, Booklist

"[Boyle is] a writer born to elegance and equipped with keen eyes, ears and a preternatural skill at evoking the objects of his roving interest." Herbert Gold, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review

Gathered here are all the stories that have appeared in the inventive writer's four previous collections, as well as seven that have never before been published in book form.

T. C. Boyle is the author of seven novels and four short story collections. He received the PEN/Faulkner prize for his novel World's End. His short fiction regularly appears in major American magazines, including the New Yorker, Harper's, the Paris Review, Playboy, Esquire, and the Atlantic Monthly. He lives near Santa Barbara, California.