Mr. Boyle uses his seemingly limitless capacity for invention and a gift for nimble, hyperventilated prose to delineate his heightened vision of the world....Though the tales share the author's distinctly manic voice, a voice, pitched just this side of hysteria, they remain remarkably eclectic in form, disparate in subject matter - a testament to both Mr. Boyle's range as a storyteller and to the reach of his ambition....Many of Mr. Boyle's stories share a brooding, Pinteresque atmosphere of menace: violence and blood percolate throughout this collection, often surfacing in especially gruesome images...What saves the darkest tales from becoming morbidly grotesque is Mr. Boyle's infectious, farcical humor....Indeed, the best of his stories not only make the reader see; they also make the reader hear and smell and feel. -- New York Times