Incels, adults in arrested development, COVID (of course), climate change, suicide, self-driving cars, the homeless problem, teachers hooking up with students, hallucinogenics, and a social credit system - in the US? TC Boyle’s latest collection of short stories is very much about the here and now of our world.
I’ve read nearly all of Boyle’s short story collections and I Walk Between the Raindrops is probably my least favourite of his so far. That said, they’re usually very high quality collections so this is by no means a bad book and there are some brilliant gems to be found amidst the 13 stories here.
What’s Love Got To Do With It? is the first great story, about an older woman taking the cross-country train to her family and happens to meet an incel (“involuntary celibate” - exclusively guys) and they discuss a recent school shooting by an incel. It’s an increasingly dark and tense story where you wonder what other revelations Boyle will throw at you before the tale is told - very compelling stuff.
The Shape of a Teardrop is my favourite story here. It’s about a thirtysomething manbaby being evicted by his parents for being a deadbeat. It’s written from the point of view of the man and his mother and it’s very funny, but also timely - I recall seeing a similar story in the news in recent years. If you like this story, I highly recommend checking out Todd Solondz’s underrated movie Dark Horse which features a very similar character.
Given the contemporary nature of the stories, there had to be at least one about COVID-19 and that one is The Thirteenth Day. The story takes us aboard the cruise ship that featured in the early days of 2020 where its passengers and crew had to quarantine indefinitely rather than dock anywhere, Boyle perfectly capturing in his characters the increasing panic and fear that all of us felt that year in the first lockdown when we didn’t know what we were suddenly facing.
The title story is about a well-off older couple that basically showcases a multitude of things - the polarised political landscape of America, extreme weather patterns, increased suicide, the obesity crisis - in an uneven story that’s not especially memorable and seems to be saying “things are pretty fucked up right now, eh?” rather underwhelmingly. The suicide hotline anecdote and the description of the aftermath of the Californian mudslide are quite good though.
The Apartment was the last story I sorta enjoyed about a Frenchman who approaches an elderly widower with an offer on her lovely apartment, thinking he’ll be able to move his family in when she passes shortly - and then has a surprise headed his way! It’s a mildly amusing tale that kept me guessing as to where it was going and, while not an impossible conceit, has an air of a satirical fairy tale about it.
I won’t go into all of the stories I didn’t like as much but there were only a couple that I outright disliked. Key to the Kingdom has an unwieldy flashback device that adds little to a story that’s straightforward and mundane in concept - an older man finds out he has a secret son - while The Hyena is about a town that collectively hallucinates after hallucinogens somehow get into their bread; no idea what that story was meant to be about but it was boring.
The others weren’t great stories but they had aspects that were interesting, like the social credit system story SCS 750 and what life under such a regime could look like, and the temp teacher who watches his colleague embark on a relationship with her student.
Boyle’s written better short story collections before - his previous one, The Relive Box, is excellent - but he’s also such a fantastic short story writer that it’s always worth checking out his work regardless as there’s definitely going to be some real bangers mixed in there, as they are in I Walk Between the Raindrops. Fans will pick this one up anyway but I also recommend it to anyone looking to read some pretty decent short fiction about the ever-varied world we’re currently inhabiting.
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