Descent of Man

T. Coraghessan Boyle's outrageous stories — many have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, Penthouse, Esquire, and other publications — confirm him as one of the most original and imaginative young writers of today. His mad, hilarious collection, DESCENT OF MAN, offers a Bosch-eye view of dictators, animals, scientists, explorers, collectors, teetotalers, and others: the Yerkes chimp steals off with his female trainer, Lassie and Timmy appear as you've always wanted to see them; gusto subverts itself to ferocity in a competition to snare the ancient Aztec beer can, Ouetzacóatl Lite; Idi Amin presides over the Second International Dada Fair; and a piane crash survivor endures a hideous ordeal through densest jungle, yet emerges curiously elated. Other places and other times, Boyle demonstrates, were equally out of joint: a Norse poet overcomes bard-block through bracingly brutal voyages abroad, and the temperance crusade is shown to pack a violent punch of its own. Welcome, readers, to seventeen immensely ingenious fantasies, each precisely drawn and traveling a delirious course all its own, by an unpredictable and extraordinarily entertaining author. DESCENT OF MAN awaits you. "I've been reading these stories with awe and pleasure for half a decade. I'm delighted that they've been collected and that T. C. Boyle is on his way out of the literary underground, where he has been almost a legend." [Vance Bourjaily] CONTENTS 1. Descent of Man 2. The Champ 3. We Are Norsemen 4. Heart of a Champion 5. Bloodfall 6. The Second Swimming 7. Dada 8. A Women's Restaurant 9. The Extinction Tales 10. Caye 11. The Big Garage 12. Green Heli 13. Earth, Moon 14. Quetzalcóatl Lite 15. De Rerum Natura 16. John Barleycorn Lives 17. Drowning * Jacket illustration by Gerry Hoover