Talk to Me

Reviews / Votes

Howlingly marvelous ... Boyle's masterly storytelling and shrewd social commentary have much in common with Charles Dickens; his laid-back, colloquial prose is maximalist rather than minimalist, with a touch of acute satire ... Gripping and inescapably bittersweet -- Joseph Peschel * Boston Globe * If the measure of a good story is how often you think about it after you are done, then Talk to Me hits the mark ... Real and relevant * BookTrib * Boyle tells this story with clear-eyed, flinty intelligence * Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald * [An] engaging tale of two very flawed but very human characters - Aimee and Guy, who for the most part are trying to do their best and be true to themselves * The Blurb, Australia * PRAISE FOR T. C. BOYLE: Boyle is a writer who chooses a large canvas and fills it to the edges -- Barbara Kingsolver A virtuoso craftsman -- Annie Proulx Funny, but not always in a way you can laugh at. Boyle's dissections are far too accurate. One moment you're watching the antics of a narcissistic cast; the next you're finding it all heartbreakingly human -- M John Harrison You don't feel cheated, reading Boyle - while the head knows there's manipulation and artifice, the heart thumps * Observer * Boyle has a talent for describing events we may never experience with an arresting matter-of-factness. There is a thrill to this, and to not knowing where he will take us next -- Chris Power * Guardian * A sort of Frank Zappa of American letters ... Like the Beat writers before him, Boyle documents American life in the underbelly. Boyle is incapable of writing a boring sentence ... he is a master of the short story form * Financial Times * Thomas Coraghessan Boyle isn't the first writer to probe the American malaise, but he makes a two-fisted, Technicolor job of it * Sunday Times * Masterful * Daily Telegraph * Brilliant ... His characters are portrayed with sympathy and internal complexity, even if they're still crazy * New Statesman * One of our finest chroniclers ... Boyle is always going outside himself, jumping into foreign skins ... The best of Boyle's novels warn against the varieties of human extremism: our problems may be grave, he often says, but we make them worse by acting on our unexamined impulses and convictions * Independent *