AFTER THE PLAGUE AND OTHER STORIES

T.C. Boyle is arguably the funniest, meanest writer of short stories working in this country today. Eccentric people face spectacular circumstances in his clockwork plots. An airplane bursts into flames. A drug addict is sent to work at his brother's abortion clinic; he brings his gun. How do the characters behave? Badly sometimes, always believably. After Boyle hits contemporary America with a plague, one survivor tells another: "You don't have to make car payments or remember your mother's birthday. It's over. Don't you get it?" Scott Brick is a talented and enthusiastic reader, but his performance is oddly uneven. Everybody has trouble pronouncing "Coraghessan," but "gnocchi"? B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 02]