More Wit, Insight From T.C. Boyle The title of T. Coraghessan Boyle's latest collection of short stories, "Without A Hero", may be true. But his sharply defined, varied group of characters don't fall short of heroic status for lack of trying. Take, for example, Ray Arthur Larry-Pete Fontinot, a human mountain on the pathetic front line of the Caledonia College football team. The Shuckers have lost 43 games in a row, including a 56-0 humiliation that has put part of the team in the hospital and hobbled the rest. But Ray Arthur Larry-Pete-named by his father "after the three greatest offensive linemen in collegefootball history"-is determined to make the final game of his final year a victory over State, Caledonia's arch rival. He is prepared to ignore his pain, his shame and his four classes-physical communications, phys. ed., phys. training and phys. phys.-to earn the victory. Then there's Jim, who gained carnal knowledge by his infatuation with Alena Jorgensen. Her love for animals and hate for their tormentors-"Every day is Auschwitz for the animals "-leads him to become an anti-fur, anti-meat terrorist when he really would just as soon be chewing a cheeseburger. Boyle's near heroes come to life with the evocative style he has displayed in his novels, including "The Road to Wellville" and "East Is East," as well as his earlier collections. In "The Fog Man," a sensitive coming-of-age story, the key scene takes place on a dark night in a small town: "There were no streetlights along that unfinished road and the trees overhung it so that the deepest shadows grew deeper still beneath them. It was a warm, slick, humid night at the end of May, the sort of night that surprises you with its richness and intensity, smells heightened, sounds muffled, lights blurred to indistinction." Some of the stories work better than others. But Boyle at his best-describing a pseudo-African safari in California, or portraying Susan Certaine, professional organizer for people who belong in acquisitors anonymous-paints a wry world slightly off-center. Boyle mixes entertainment and insight, with words that that will delight readers with a richness and intensity of their own. "Without A Hero" should increase what is a-growing following for T. Coraghessan Boyle. |