A collection of short stories, including the tale of a middle-aged bank president who seeks diversion with an office temp - a nudist and bald mime artiste who strips away all externals in her quest for pure truth. Other work by the author includes "Remind Me to Murder You Later".
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This unconventional, imaginative and funny first novel by the author of the short story collection Remind Me to Murder You Later makes the most of its bizarre but real-life setting: the coal-mining town of Centralia, Pa., where an underground mine fire has raged since the early '60s--a town plagued to this day by sulfurous fumes and smoke rising eerily from the ground. Nature is out of control in Centralia, and so are most of Boylan's characters; they seem to have walked out of Kurt Vonnegut stories, updated for the '90s. This is one of those novels where no coincidence is too extreme, where characters from one chapter drop in out of the blue (literally) in the next, and where time has a wonderful elasticity that brings random events together in a sort of cosmic interrelatedness that suggests the movement of the planets (in an author's note, Boylan says he was inspired by Gustav Holst's orchestral work of the same name). At the end, the plot, always humorous, veers toward the slapstick. But the characters are sensitively drawn, and on his tour of the universe Boylan offers some perceptive observations about how difficult it is for people to take control of their own lives, and about the lack of communication between the sexes. Author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading again and again,
By A Customer
This review is from: Planets (Paperback)
Unbelievably entertaining. I recommend this to any friend with a joy for tongue-in-cheek humor. I enjoyed the absurd coincidences and irreverent look at the things we wll take too seriously. I've read it half a dozen times and will read it again when I need to put things back in perspective.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
read it 5 times and laugh just as hard each time,
By alice_boylan@smtpgw.musc.edu (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Planets (Hardcover)
I picked this book up because the author shared the same last name and was curious as to whether a Boylan could actually write. Only Thurber has made me laugh this hard. I have read it at least 5 times and laugh just as much each time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh Out Loud Funny,
By A Customer
This review is from: Planets (Paperback)
This novel grabs your funny bone and doesn't let go even when you cry, "Uncle!" The wildest assortment of incredibly eccentric everyday people you will ever meet. Set in Philadelphia and Centralia, Pennsylvania, neither city has been funnier. I highly recommend this book
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