Similes, sibilants and yarns, 'Greasy Lake' is a fine medley of imagination.
Embree Jaillite
The Kansas City Star 7/21/85

The trouble with many short-story collections is that after reading two or three stories, you begin to think, "Hey, this sounds kind of familiar—like the one I just read."

The same cannot be said of T. Coraghessan Boyle. Each of his stories is different, in plot, background, characterization, motivation—in all the elements an experienced writer combines to get and hold reader attention. One is almost tempted to regard Greasy Lake & Other Stories not so much as a collection of Mr. Boyle as an anthology of the work of many authors.

It's a wonderfully diverse medley of 15 stories from an extra-fertile imagination and an equally facile pen, only vaguely suggested by some of the intriguing titles: "Ike and Nina," "Rupert Beersley and the Beggar Master of Sivani-Hoots," "On for the Long Haul," "Not a Leg to Stand On," "All Shook Up" and "Rara Avis."

As gifted a yarn spinner as you'll find between dust covers, Mr. Boyle allows each story to glow with its own luminescence. His characters are very real presences, and his language heightens the immediacy.

Similes delight Mr. Boyle, and he peppers his prose with them. "Marsha's smile bloomed and faded as quickly as an accelerated film clip of horticultural miracles… She curtsied and smiled like a plate of buttered scones."

They're effective, but some times the cup runneth over.

"Hiss" fascinates Mr. Boyle, and the word abounds. "The snow sifted down with a hiss... I listened to it [rain] hiss in the gutters, like a thousand coiled snakes."

"I'm not here,' I hissed." (Try hissing any sentence sans a slew of sibilant S's.)

And he keeps readers reaching for Webster's, looking up words such as anadromous, luculent, susurrus, feculant, quotidian and rictus. So reading Mr. Boyle is not only entertaining, it's educational.

Overall, Mr. Boyle gives a virtuoso performance. One of his best stories is "The Overcoat II," a sort of updating of Nikolai Gogol's masterpiece.

It's the touching tale of Akaky Akakievich, a devout Leninist who is a party tool, an office drudge and a fool. His life ends tragically when he comes face to face with the corruption of his government.

Mr. Boyle's delicious comic sense triumphs in this funny but pathetic story as he shifts moods as effortlessly as an Indy 500 driver changing gears. See how catching similes are?