Book Festival

(This post will cover today and Saturday.  Saturday will find the Fischer family at the Savannah Book Festival.)

There is one author I want to see there and it's...

T. C. Boyle! 

I have loved everything I've read by Boyle:

- 1993's Road to Wellville (the only Boyle novel adapted into a film), that zany, colorful, amazingly-researched look at Dr. John Kellogg and the loopy wellness movement of the early 20th century
- 1995's The Tortilla Curtain, arguably his most recognized book, a great sociological, empathetic, blackly funny tale about the relationship between whites and illegal Mexican immigrants in a tony L.A. hillside community
- 2005's The Human Fly and Other Stories, a sterling collection of previously published short stories (except for one), including the great "The Love of My Life" 
- 2010's amazingly diverse, creative Wild Child, one of the best collections of stories I've ever read
- 2011's  When the Killing's Done, a stirring, thought-provoking, riveting story about the environmental disputes over California's Channel Islands.

Boyle has written 14 novels (the most recent of which is 2012's San Miguel, his first novel that is solely, straight-up historical) and published countless stories - by my count, there have been nine collections of stories to date, although according to his website, another volume is due out later this year. 

Characteristics of Boyle's work:

- inventive use of language (have a thesaurus handy, too!)
- environmental concerns
- the dynamics of interaction between steely, brilliant outsiders (Alfred Kinsey, John Kellogg, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc.) and society 
- black humor
- tons of details and research

He has been teaching English at the University of Southern California since 1978.  He lives near Santa Barbara with his wife of 39 years; the couple has three children.  He often goes up into the Southern Sierra mountains to write.  A prolific, consistently critically-adored novelist, he might not have that one definitive work (though maybe it's The Tortilla Curtain or possibly 1987's highly-praised World's End, which portrays three centuries worth of familial life in New York's Hudson River Valley) but I don't think he's ever written a disappointing work.

Apparently he gives very entertaining talks, with a lot of audience involvement, so I'm looking forward to hearing him.  (Note: His literary idol is Savannah native Flannery O'Connor.)

The link to his website: 

http://www.tcboyle.com/

Article in the Savannah Morning News:

http://savannahnow.com/do/2013-02-14/savannah-book-festival-tc-boyle-ventures-wild#.UR4uSei7CM8








Image courtesy of:

http://media.independent.com/img/croppedphotos/2011/03/30/03222011-TC-Boyle-007_t479.jpg?6626f76dcd72edc2e28f46812c7026450162bdb2