Publishers Weekly, February 24, 1989

The pleasure of pure storytelling makes Boyle's new collection of fiction a joy to read. The author ( World's End ) filters a diverse cast of characters through his witty, relentless narrative voice. Employing parody, social satire and traditional storytelling methods, Boyle's 16 stories invoke vastly different fictional worlds. The author gives us a death-defying stuntman (in “The Human Fly”), as fast-talking pitchman briefing the Ayatollah on how to improve his image (“Hard Sell”), a businessman who sells his soul to the devil (“The Devil and Irv Cherniske”), a New York construction worker's vision of the Virgin at a religious shrine in Ireland (“The Miracle at Ballinspittle”), even a young man romancing a woman pathologically afraid of germs (“Modern Love”). All of these stories seem fueled by the writer's own curiosity about people and places, but a few, unfortunately, read like throwaways. These stand out because most of the book is so full of diversity, wit and daring.