The Relive Box and Other Stories
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
While T.C. Boyle is known as one of our greatest American novelists, he is also an acknowledged master of the short story and is perhaps at his funniest, his most moving, and his most surprising in the short form. In The Relive Box, Boyle's sharp wit and rich imagination combine with a penetrating social consciousness to produce raucous, poignant, and expansive short stories defined by an inimitable voice. From the collection's title story, featuring a Halcom X1520 Relive Box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past to "The Five-Pound Burrito," the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the twelve stories in this collection speak to the humor, the pathos, and the struggle that is part of being human while relishing the whimsy of wordplay and the power of a story well told. In stories that span a variety of styles and genres, Boyle addresses the enduring concerns of the human mind and heart while taking on timely social concerns. The Relive Box is an exuberant, linguistically dazzling effort from a "vibrant sensibility fully engaged with American society." (The New York Times)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Characteristic elements of Boyle's fiction ecology, technology, human nature, obsession, men and women disconnecting, the ordinary intermingled with the bizarre are evident throughout his latest collection. The title story centers on a home entertainment console that enables users to relive moments from their past. A father, arguing with his 15-year-old daughter who wants more time at the "relive box," tells her to do her homework and focus on the present, even as he is about to lose his job because he cannot stop reliving younger, more promising, days. "Are We Not Men?" depicts a future in which people custom-design children and pets through transgenic reproduction. Trouble begins when a maraschino-colored pit bull attacks a micropig. In "You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til the Well Runs Dry)," a neighbor siphons off a California homeowner's water during a drought, then, when the drought worsens, asks the homeowner to contribute money for a rain dancer. The creator of the titular dish in "The Five-Pound Burrito" experiences both success and hallucinations. In "She's the Bomb," a non-graduating college senior is desperate to delay the graduation ceremony, and in "Warrior Jesus" a cook channels his anger into disturbing comic-book superhero episodes. Settings for the 12 stories range from the Arctic to Argentina, protagonists from teenager to octogenarian. Boyle makes the incredible credible through detail, and his narrative voices convincing through rhythm and attitude. He can be funny, touching, or both, as when his characters face aging with characteristically fervent resistance.
