Booklist Boyle's imagination is protean, and his prose transporting. The author of 10 potent novels and counting, Boyle is also a virtuoso short story writer, and he has never been more enrapturing than in his seventh collection of shrewd and comic tales. He orchestrates suspenseful, ludicrous, and wrenching predicaments, and his evocation of visceral detail, great gift for supple social commentary, and ability to occupy the psyches of his perplexed male characters are extraordinary. As the title suggests, Boyle focuses on nature, long the central concern in his work, specifically the conflict between civilization and wildness. Even as humankind forces others species into extinction, we remain at the mercy of nature. So how does this struggle for survival play out in Boyle's hectic cosmos? In the title story, a hapless guy wins a serval, a wildcat from Africa, in a bar bet, and it's hard to tell who is more miserable cooped up in a crummy apartment, man or beast. In “Dogology,” a woman literally goes to the dogs in Connecticut, while in India a reverend attempts to reclaim two young girls raised by a wolf. In other tales, a couple is stranded in a blizzard, nature wreaks havoc on a planned community in Florida, and the threat of earth-smashing meteors pales in comparison to the dangers teenagers court. Boyle's visions of our perverse attempts to defy and deny nature are darkly humorous and wisely trenchant, brilliantly highlighting our unlikely, yet, so far, effective survival habits: hubris and obliviousness. — Donna Seaman YA/M: Boyle's irreverence, narrative drive, and loser characters will engage teens who love high-quality fiction. DS. |