book data
135 ratings, 3.99 average rating, 14 reviews
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published
July 27th 1990
(first published 1987)
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
binding
Paperback, 240 pages
isbn
0140299947
(isbn13: 9780140299946)
description
A mad, hilarious collection of short stories, wherein Boyle offers his unique view of dictators, animals, scientists, explorers, collectors, teetotale...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 172)
Read in July, 1994
I rate this so highly because reading it was such an experience for me. I stumbled upon it in Morgenstern's Booksellers in Bloomington, IN the summer I stayed in town to take classes between junior and senior year of college. I would take the bus to work at Video World and if it got me there early, I would hang out in the bookstore a few storefronts down before work. One day I picked up this book and started to read a story called "A Women's Restaurant." The story is classic T.C. B...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Josh by:
DeSaviarecommends it for: savourors of letters
I truly loved every story in this one except the last one, and 16 out of 17 is still an "A" in my book. My second consecutive book of short stories (read, not written - I am not TC Boyle, nor JD Salinger, neither are these 2 men in fact the same man, who is secretly disguised as me), and I really tore through it/devoured it/soaked it up like the summer reading sponge I can sometimes be. This is great, and I highly recommend it. The stories are all loosely themed (the title sums that...more
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Read in January, 1998
recommended to Jason by:
Mrs. Kristen Kaiser Nelsonrecommends it for: anyone who has a short attention span + litteray hounds
This one the first TC book that I read...I love how this collection of short stories starts out..."I was living with a woman who suddenly began to stink!" TC grips you with humor, intelligence, and an unbelievable vocabulary that will have you reaching for a dictionary from time to time. Check him out, his is absolutely worth the read!
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Read in October, 2008
recommended to Dj by:
Kurtrecommends it for: Misanthropists
Pessimistic, Cynical. The title is Descent of Man, and it means Humankind are dicks. Some stories in this collection are funny, whether witty, slapstick, or both.
There is an almost perfect bell curve for the ratings of the stories within: from 1 star to 5 stars.
Very entertaining, even though the message is very clear: Humans suck.
There is an almost perfect bell curve for the ratings of the stories within: from 1 star to 5 stars.
Very entertaining, even though the message is very clear: Humans suck.
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this was the first short story collection I read by Boyle, and it's the one that got me hooked. It does contain his most outlandish stories, and my favorite is the one where some rich stoner kids in the 70's are having a party in their basement and the sky starts raining blood. Fun and weird.
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Read in February, 2008
As always, Boyle is amazing. Each story is a nugget of black humor, creeping fear and a certain giddy joy at seeing a cliche destroyed. This is a book where Lassie leaves little Timmy to die and intelligent chimps conduct experiments on men. Clever and imaginative.
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Read in May, 2008
I enjoyed this collection of short stories. They are very short, but all engaging. Each relates another facet of Boyle's general theme of clashing cultures or opposites coming to relate in some intimate way.
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Read in March, 2008
Little bit of Vonnegut, Dick, Asimov, Chandler--genre fiction corroding into something else extremely funny. And, dating from the mid-1970s, it's all pre-Lethem. BIG UP PEEKSKILL MASSIVE!
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i got this book for free from an english prof who was retiring... the stories are graphic, funny, but... very very strange. still not sure what to make of them, but i did like them. i think.
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Read in February, 2001
"Bloodfall." Best story in this, or any other, collection of short stories. Except for maybe Steinbeck's "Junius Maltby."
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Read in July, 2000
First thing I ever read of TC Boyle, totally fell in love. Such absurd stories told so well. One of my favorite authors.
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Hilarious look at humanity. Can't stop laughing at that flea that jumps out of her belly-button.
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