A review by spiderfelt
Budding Prospects: A Pastoral, by T.C. Boyle

4.0

It’s difficult to rate a book such as this. I picked the book out of a Little Free Library because I’ve enjoyed several of TC Boyle’s previous books. He is a clever wordsmith, a master of simile and metaphor, who writes descriptive curlicues around every scene. This particular book struck me as particularly old, written in a time where certain jokes were accepted simply because they were common, even if they made people cringe. TC Boyle has written a man’s adventure story featuring bumbling men falling into traps they have created through their own misguided grandiosity. There are no heroes here, just bunglers, thieves and liars. And where are the women? They appear as occasional window dressing, the objects of insatiable lust. While I won’t recommend this title, it was cheap entertainment that filled the paperback hole I needed.