Grand Delusions
Janet Maslin
New York Times 9/23/01

In "Achates McNeil," one of the fine, vigorous short stories that make up T C. Boyle's inviting new collection, the title character bears the burden of secondhand celebrity. He is the son of a very famous writer, but this lineage hasn't done Achates the least bit of good. Indeed, an enticingly wild-haired college classmate of his hands him a typical insult when she gushes about the senior McNeil, declaring that she'd like to have her favorite author's baby. "The noodles congealed in my mouth like wet confetti," Achates thinks, over a bowl of soup. "I didn't have the heart to point out that I was his baby, for better or worse."

It turns out that Achates hasn't seen much of his father since the great man left home during his son's boyhood. It also turns out that while the father is named Tom, he gave his son a Greek name that means "faithful companion" and sounds as if it signifies pain. The son is known as Ake, "and in case you're wondering how to spell that, that's Ake with a k." As opposed to the kind of ache with which his father left him.

The story tells what happens when Ake learns that Tom McNeil (whose works include "his postmodernist take on the breakdown of the family, a comedy no less") decides to visit Ake's college to give a reading. So the son dreads the arrival of this "balding, leather-jacketed, ex-hippie wordmeister who worried about his image first, his groin second and nothing else after that." And when the old man shows up, trailing a biographer in his wake, the son's worst fears are confirmed. The story ends by giving Ake a way to banish his paternal demon once and for all.

Like all of the stories in this collection, "Achates McNeil" is about someone living under a spell or in the throes of some dangerous delusion. And the shadow of a famous father is one of the least exotic auras to be found here. Another relatively realistic obsession turns up in "She Wasn't Soft," the finely wrought story of an athlete named Paula as she trains for a triathlon. Paula is determined to beat her archrival, Zinny Bauer. And she expects her boyfriend, Jason, to help her achieve that victory.

Boyle turns a keen eye on the "fleshless masochists" in competition while also dissecting Paula and Jason's romance. And from the way Jason picks two fights in a restaurant the night before the race, it's clear that trouble lurks beneath the surface of his relationship with Paula. Once again, Boyledraws the reader effortlessly into the particular domain of his story, then leads up to a definitive ending. The story's artful last line is a perfect encapsulation of what has come before.

The stories that venture furthest out '' include "The Underground Gardens," in which an Italian immigrant is determined to dig a new universe for himself in Fresno, Calif., all for the love of a woman who isn't worth this. ("It was during this time of close scrutiny that he began to detect certain small imperfections in his bride-to-be."). Another is the post-apocalyptic title tale, in which the world's lone surviving man doesn't much care for the female company he's been left with. "I knew there wouldn't be much opportunity for dating in the near future, but we just weren't suited to each other," he says.

And the strangest' piece here ("The Black and White Sisters") concerns two wealthy recluses who are determined to remove anything but those hues from their world, taking their inspiration from early television. But this book itself is in bright, living color.