Customer Reviews

If the River Was Whiskey: Stories (Contemporary American Fiction)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

wow, this book will basically just blow your mind. it's so upseting and weird in Boyle's tradmark darkly comic way (think Coen Brothers wooing Flannery O'Conner) and yet -- hotdamn -- on the sentence level, this prose is just out of sight. Beautifully written and laugh-out-loud funny, too? It's the perfect cross of high and low culture, like the Simpsons or the Coen Bros, if you're a smart, engaged reader, there really is something on every level of funny and weird, but the focous doesn't eclipse tender or meaningful . . . no, instead this collection really does match the wickedness of the smart-..., knowing hipster with the empathetic tug of "literary fiction." The perfect kind of thing to turn people on to short stories, this collection ends each time with a knockout punch.

...I don't have time to write much here, but the average customer rating is WAY too low for this great book of short stories. In fact, I'm here right now buying it for a friend. T.C. Boyle has such a unique perspective on the world, and I read this book 3 years ago and I still remember many of the stories like I just read them yesterday. Particularly "Sorry Fugu," the unforgettable opening story about a chef and his critic coming together through food. I'll also never forget the story about the adopted kid obsessed with bees. That one will freak you out. Ok, well sorry for not being eloquent here but this is a great book...

My girlfriend was out of town for the weekend so I picked this up at the bookstore and started it around 10:00 when I got off work. I told myself, "Maybe I'll just read a few stories and then go to bed." No dice. The stories grab you with their spacey lyricism and surreal feel as Boyle's truly warped imagination leaves readers stranded in a fantasy world so fimiliar that they never want to leave. The stories go from the unimaginable to the undeniable in a matter of sentences, as Boyle disamrms readers with his bleak, obtuse sense of humor -- allowing the stories to unlock feelings of pain, regreat, isolation, nostalgia and revelation long ignored as a result of taking onesself too seriously. A truly novel collection of stories.

Written almost 20 years ago, these stories are still sparkling and fresh. Some of the plots are preposterous, but make you a believer. The human fly ties himself to airplane wings and the undercarriages of semis. The ape lady retires to Connecticut with an unruly chimp. Irv Cherniske meets the devil in the woods behind his house. A widow celebrates her overbearing husband's death by flooding her house.

All of the stories are vigorous and imaginative. And Boyle's prose is crisp and apt. "Sorry Fugu" is flawless in its choreography. What a great mini-play or film it would make.

Not a dud in the lot, though The Little Chill left me cool. It's evident that these are earlier stories than those in Tooth and Claw, but only because the youthful point of view shows through; certainly his writing talent was blazing even back in 1989.

Boyle is one of the best short story writers around today. His short stories are enjoyable and varied. This compilation of short stories contains some of the most perfect gems that I've ever read. First published in 1989, none of these stories feel dated. They could easily have been published last year.

So, they're good. They're really good. What's more, this is a great compilation to read if you're trying to write short stories. Many of them, especially the shorter ones like "Sorry Fugu" and "Hard Sell," have similar structure that worthwhile to consider when writing your own short fiction. I'm not suggesting that these are formulaic, anything but. However, if you read several of them, preferably in a row, you get a feel for Boyle's construction, which is that there is a situation with an antagonist, the POV character makes a decision to outflank the antagonist, and then a suggestion of what the outcome of that situation will be.

Stories in this compilation:

Sorry Fugu
Modern Love
Hard Sell
Peace of Mind
Sinking House
The Human Fly
The Hat
Me Cago en la Leche (Robert Jordan in Nicaragua)
The Little Chill
King Bee
Thawing Out
The Devil and Irv Cherniske
The Miracle at Ballinspittle
Zapatos
The Ape Lady in Retirement
If the River Was Whisky

TK Kenyon
Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel

Most of these stories are incredibly well-written. The contents are bizarre - - ordinary people caught in their obsessive ambitions - - and the reader looks on with wide eyes at the fiercely funny and tragic lives of the misguided protagonists.

'Sorry Figu' is great. It's about a great chef at the mercy of a cruel, mean-spirited restaurant reviewer.

'Modern Love' is one of my all-time favorite short stories. A woman, obsessed with dirt and germs requires that her lovers wear a a full body condom.

'Peace of Mind' is a wonderful story about a woman who sells alarm systems to upper class folks to ward off intruders. She tells them tales of mayhem that could have been prevented if the household had only had an alarm. The ensuing events are tragic, yet incongruently funny.

'Sinking House' is about an old woman who runs water from ever faucet to flood her house and wash away the memories of her evil husband. Unfortunately, she's started to wash away and sink her neighbor's house along with her own.

'The Human Fly' is about a homeless n'eer-do-well who seeks fame and fortune by becoming the Evel Kneivel of the air - - the human fly. This story examines the atrocities to which we are willing to subject ourselves for a few moments of attention and to feed our own pride.

'The Ape Lady in Retirement' is about a retired anthropologist who is discovered by a young student. The anthropologist returns to her profession for a short while only to be done in by an ape while the idiotic student looks on.

These are some of the wondrous types of stories you'll find in this fabulous collection. I recommend you buy this book and read all the stories, many of which I have not even mentioned.

When I picked up this book of stories it was the promise of something a bit crazy that attracted me. I should have known better. When ever people say something's a bit dotty I usually find the stories pretty bland, and this was no exception. It made me feel a bit creepy -- the way sitting in Creative Writing classes made me feel. There's this sort of precious, trying-too-hard, attitude that permeates this collection that reminds me of pink hair, unfiltered cigarettes and black clothes, but not of great writing. There's no enduring heart or grit about these stories. They're slick, fluent and trendy, but not the sort of thing I would ever read again. It struck me that Boyle is one of those writers who appeal to the folks who are worried about how "colorful" their adjectives are, and sound contrived as a result. To me, he just isn't that interesting.

This is a nice book with good stories, but I surely won't read it again. It lacks the "depth" that makes you come back to a book you read years before.