Talk Talk by T. C. Boyle

I didn’t dogear a single page in this novel. And if you know me and my affinity for Boyle, that’s really saying something.

But why? Is the novel not any good? No, the novel is a delight. I took it with me on my last vacation and it delivered exactly what I wanted: a pleasant and engaging escape.

Then why no dogears? Was there nothing worth citing? Were there no dazzling flashes of Boyle’s hyperbolic prose? Well … honestly, no. There weren’t. And that, I think, may be a good thing.

And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Here are some quotes from the congratulatory notes at the front of the paperback.

The New York Times: “He manages here to mix clever narrative pyrotechnics with real character development.”

New York Daily News: “The normally extravagant T. C. Boyle tames himself in Talk Talk to deliver a chilling literary thriller.”

Entertainment Weekly: “When Boyle finds the delicate balance between his over-the-top satirical impulses and his startling sentimentality, no American novelist can touch him.”

For the last two Boyle books I’ve read (Without a Hero and Riven Rock), I blogged that the transcendent prose is the main reason to keep reading Boyle and that, if there is any criticism to offer, it is that his plots never seem able to deliver the same kind of punch. Talk Talk strikes a better balance, with characters, pacing, and events, like its prose, better grounded in reality.

So which Boyle do I like better? Well, perhaps the Rocky Mountain News can provide a clue: “An identity-theft thriller that will appeal even to John Grisham readers.”

Hmmm. I wonder if that was meant as a compliment?

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This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.