Wild Child And Other Stories (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I think the reason I marked this to-read was because I liked his short story in Harpers about a girl re-hired to train a couple's puppy, this the cloned pup reincarnated from the remains of her original charge. Half way through these short stories I likened them to a catalog of all the reasons I was so happy to have left California (over-entitled adolescents, mudslides, wild fires, alcoholic vegetarians...).I didn't like the second half of this book as much as the first, but I enjoyed them all so much I went ahead and checked out a second volume of T.C. Boyle short stories from the library. My first read of anything by T. C. Boyle and I liked it. Unfortunately my library copy only had the title novella and there were no other accompanying short stories. It would have been good to have other stories to balance the feel of this particular story.I was put in mind a little of the story of - The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - in that the reader is introduced to a feral child with no language, no education, no self-awareness, no shame, no family, and so on. The story - based on the early 19th century true story of Victor of Aveyron - tells of how one man of inexhaustible patience attempts to 'civilise' a 'savage' child. Abandoned by a parent who bungled their attempt to slit the child's throat, Victor had grown up alone in woodlands, living in nature, eating uncooked vegetables, fruits, and occasional tastes of raw meat. Eventually, as rumours of occasional sightings grew in number, the boy is captured and taken in to post-revolutionary French life. What follows is a catalogue of incidents, some progressive, some regressive, which retell how he is passed from one institution to the next until he eventually arrives into the care of a young and ambitious academic at the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris. Efforts to impart some form of belated education on Victor are largely unsuccessful, although there are momentary breakthroughs. It is an interesting and ultimately tragic tale. The writer narrated my audiobook and that was a big plus. I'd certainly like to read other stories by T. C. Boyle.
What do You think about Wild Child And Other Stories (2010)?
Good, fun stories. Quick reads, a lot of it seemed locally based and I recognized locations.
—momo
