Tooth and Claw

and Other Stories

By: T.C. Boyle

Narrated by: T.C. Boyle

The fourteen stories gathered here, which have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Harper's, McSweeney's, and Playboy, as well as in The O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Stories volumes, display T. C. Boyle's imaginative muscle, emotional sensitivity and astonishing range. There are the whimsical tales for which Boyle is justly famous, including "Swept Away," which tells of a female ornithologist who falls in love on the blustery island of Unst, and "The Kind Assassin," about a bored and loveless radio shock jock who sets the world record for most continuous hours without sleep–and who may never sleep again.

Listeners will love the comedic drama and lyrical beauty of the title story, about a young man who must contend with a vicious feral cat from Africa that he has won in a bar bet. And who could resist the gripping power of "Dogology," about a young woman in suburban New England who becomes so obsessed with man's best friend that she begins to lose her own identity to a pack of strays, or "Chicxulub," a nerve-shattering tale of collision, whether it be that of a young woman with a car or of huge objects from outer space slamming into the planet. With these compelling and always entertaining stories, Boyle proves once again that he is "a writer who can take any topic and spin a yarn too good to put down" (Men's Journal).

Critic reviews

"A dazzling new collection from a writer of "roaring intelligence and a curiosity that has led him to develop a masterly range of subjects and locales" —Annie Proulx, The Washington Post

"In T.C. Boyle's fierce, funny new collection, men are fools, women hold the sexual cards, and nature is full of surprises, few of them pleasant." —Entertainment Weekly

Enjoyable collection of stories

TC Boyle is an amazing wordsmith, and I've always found his short stories to be full of vivid description, and if the point and plot are not always clear, the journey to the story's end is always enjoyable. This audiobook is read by the author, whose tone matches very well the world-weary, self-absorbed view of many of these stories' narrators. Sometimes, however, my mind wandered while listening, and at times I wished I was reading this instead of listening to it, so I could go back and listen again to what I missed (hard to do with an ipod!) By far the best story, in my opinion, is "Chicxulub", although there are several other memorable stories. At the end of this audiobook is a fascinating interview with the author, in which he talks about his process of writing -- a neat "extra".

masterful

Great interview at the end, wonderful collection, loved the performance of narration by the author