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The Inner Circle
by T. C. Boyle

The Inner Circle Cover

Only 1 left in stock at $6.50!

Powells.com Staff Pick

When it comes to exposing the corroding effects of misplaced idealism, T. C. Boyle has no peer. And he's funny to boot.
Recommended by Farley

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"In the 1940s and 50s, Dr Alfred Kinsey published the first ever American bestsellers on the subject of sex: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and its sequel Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Some fifty years later, T. C. Boyle's hugely satisfying tenth novel takes a long hard look into the process behind Kinsey's controversial investigations. And in doing so, he offers his own forensic examination — as all novelists should — of the behaviour of the 'human animal' itself." Stephen Abell, The Times Literary Supplement (read the entire Times Literary Supplement review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Dr. Alfred Kinsey and T.C. Boyle — two great American originals together at last.

Fresh on the heels of his New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-nominated novel, Drop City, T.C. Boyle has spun an even more dazzling tale that will delight both his longtime devotees and a legion of new fans. Boyle's tenth novel, The Inner Circle has it all: fabulous characters, a rollicking plot, and more sex than pioneering researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey ever dreamed of documenting...well, almost.

A love story, The Inner Circle is narrated by John Milk, a virginal young man who in 1940 accepts a job as an assistant to Dr. Alfred Kinsey, an extraordinarily charming professor of zoology at Indiana University who has just discovered his life's true calling: sex. As a member of Kinsey's "inner circle" of researchers, Milk (and his beautiful new wife) is called on to participate in sexual experiments that become increasingly uninhibited — and problematic for his marriage. For in his later years Kinsey (who behind closed doors is a sexual enthusiast of the first order) ever more recklessly pushed the boundaries both personally and professionally.

While Boyle doesn't resist making the most of this delicious material, The Inner Circle is at heart a very moving and very loving look at sex, marriage, and jealousy that will have readers everywhere reassessing their own relationships — because, in the end, "love is all there is."

Review:

"Released in the late 1940s and early '50s, the Kinsey Reports, the compilations of a scientific study that attempted to quantify male and female sexual behavior, shocked Americans with revelations about their sexuality. Indiana University professor Alfred Kinsey's obsessive belief that the human need for sex is little different from animal instinct, and his iconoclastic research methods (including voyeurism and personal interactions), make Kinsey (called 'Prok' by students and intimates) a fitting subject for Boyle's (Drop City) irrepressible imagination. In this provocative fictional reconstruction of Kinsey's influence on sexual and societal mores, Boyle's narrator is John Milk, a nave undergraduate at IU when he becomes Prok' s assistant, the first of the eventual 'inner circle' of dedicated disciples. The irony and the drama of this mesmerizing novel lie in Milk's unquestioning acceptance of his idol's demands, and the gradual moral corruption that ensues from such occupational obligations as serving as Kinsey's partner in homosexual sex while also bedding Prok's compliant wife and eventually offering his own wife in group sex activities. Boyle's narrative brio accelerates as other members of the inner circle and their wives respond to Kinsey's manipulative charisma, while the professor's increasingly uninhibited and egotistical demands test the bonds of marital fidelity. If Milk's unwavering idealism begins to seem unlikely and his recognition of the spiritual emptiness of mechanistic sex and the damage to his marriage is a little late in coming, Boyle nonetheless maintains his mix of irony and emotional fidelity with buoyant wit. In the end, the novel can be read as a case study of the price paid by ordinary human beings when they become the apostles to men of genius. Agent, Georges Borchardt. (Sept. 13) Forecast : Boyle's novels are like catnip to his fans, and the October release of a film starring Liam Neeson as Kinsey will undoubtedly bring new readers into his literary orbit. Twelve-city author tour." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Boyle's vision of Kinsey as both genius and cult leader is mesmerizing and chilling....Strong medicine from a phenomenally artistic, morally inquisitive, and unfailingly compassionate writer." Booklist

Review:

"Much of this is dizzyingly readable, and Boyle is a past master at transforming scrupulously researched material into crisply funny scenes....A great subject imperfectly tamed and controlled. Well worth reading, but not Boyle's best." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"This novel considers the conflict between our animal instincts and our human emotions...and is at once titillating and maddening. Readers everywhere will take a closer look at their own sex lives. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"For all its historical detail, The Inner Circle has a blurry, hasty, unfinished quality....[Kinsey's] real-life celebrity overshadows Milk's fictitious marriage, which is where the book's delicate, true heartbeat lies." A. O. Scott, The New York Times Book Review
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About the Author

T.C. Boyle has written nine novels and has published six collections of short fiction. He received the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel World's End and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. His stories appear regularly in The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, and Playboy.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Leslie, April 29, 2007 (view all comments by Leslie)
Boyle creates such palpable vignettes, then weaves them all togther into a story that you actually want to read. The colors, smells, sights, and feelings are so vivid. Definitely an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780670033447
Author:
Boyle, T. C.
Publisher:
Viking Adult
Author:
Boyle, T. Coraghessan
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Sexology
Subject:
Biographical fiction
Subject:
Sexologists.
Subject:
Erotica - General
Subject:
Romance - General
Copyright:
2004
Publication Date:
September 2004
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
432
Dimensions:
9.40x6.50x1.39 in. 1.45 lbs.
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