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A review by randykraft
San Miguel by T.C. Boyle
4.0
T. C. Boyle writes about interesting people, often based on real people as in this novel, most often set in his native California, like the Channel Islands in his more recent novel, When the Killing’s Done, and in this case San Miguel off Santa Barbara. There is a little bit of a history lesson embedded in his work, but never overbearing. The backstories underscore the human stories, and his people in one way or another struggle and love passionately and hurt deeply and reach out for more or suffer with demons… all the stuff that fills good fiction.
I have been a fan for many years and Boyle rarely disappoints. I prefer his novels to his stories, which are far more macabre although also often very funny, and he has published several collections.
San Miguel, published last fall [and finally got to the top of my pile] is quieter, far less irony or intricacy, as it profiles three women’s lives, and the men in them, over sixty years on the deserted island. Not as big a plot punch as for example my personal favorites, Tortilla Curtain and Riven Rock, or the sophisticated history of Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women, but just as satisfying, because Boyle always writes with clarity and elegance and holds you as if he were telling you the story over a campfire. The descriptions of foliage and sky, animals and sea life, cliffs and trees, as well as people, are just plain mesmerizing.
Miranda arrives at late in the 19th century with her stoic husband and adopted daughter in the hopes of a miracle cure for her tuberculosis; daughter Edith, a bit of a wild child, returns reluctantly, hostage to her stepfather until she can make her escape; and Elise arrives during the depression, and stays until WW II, a woman from east coast privilege who comes with her charismatic husband to embrace the simple life.
Each character has a different relationship with the island, which is much more of a character than landscape, and with the one person who knows them all: a lonely workhand named Jimmy.
If you would like to sink into a good old-fashioned novel with characters that quickly come to life and beautiful prose and a thoughtful view of so-called civilization, read San Miguel. Boyle is a modern-day Tolstoy, just a whole lot hipper. Read his backlist! Learn more at www.tcboyle.com.
I have been a fan for many years and Boyle rarely disappoints. I prefer his novels to his stories, which are far more macabre although also often very funny, and he has published several collections.
San Miguel, published last fall [and finally got to the top of my pile] is quieter, far less irony or intricacy, as it profiles three women’s lives, and the men in them, over sixty years on the deserted island. Not as big a plot punch as for example my personal favorites, Tortilla Curtain and Riven Rock, or the sophisticated history of Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women, but just as satisfying, because Boyle always writes with clarity and elegance and holds you as if he were telling you the story over a campfire. The descriptions of foliage and sky, animals and sea life, cliffs and trees, as well as people, are just plain mesmerizing.
Miranda arrives at late in the 19th century with her stoic husband and adopted daughter in the hopes of a miracle cure for her tuberculosis; daughter Edith, a bit of a wild child, returns reluctantly, hostage to her stepfather until she can make her escape; and Elise arrives during the depression, and stays until WW II, a woman from east coast privilege who comes with her charismatic husband to embrace the simple life.
Each character has a different relationship with the island, which is much more of a character than landscape, and with the one person who knows them all: a lonely workhand named Jimmy.
If you would like to sink into a good old-fashioned novel with characters that quickly come to life and beautiful prose and a thoughtful view of so-called civilization, read San Miguel. Boyle is a modern-day Tolstoy, just a whole lot hipper. Read his backlist! Learn more at www.tcboyle.com.