T.C. Boyle’s “Chicxclub”
So far my most favorite short story I’ve read. I loved the comparison of the meteor hitting earth to the death of a parents child. Although you have heard the comparison or something like it thousands of times it seems that its meaning is lost in repetitiveness like a church hymn you’ve known by heart since you were old enough to sing. Boyle shows this comparison impeccably. There is also something more to the story. A definite impending doom. Whether it be from the death of a loved one or the death of a planet; either is assured by Boyle to come at a certain time or another. It also plays with the readers emotions where in the end your ecstatic like the parents to find out that its not their child, but its someone’s child laying there. In fact someone they ended up knowing. Boyle’s story cuts to the heart of how every human is accountable for grief even if it is of no one’s death but their own. He comments on the frailty of human life in general something that is made so sacred is according to all terms besides humans frivolous. He seems to be able to ask the question why didn’t you care that their was still a dead child laying on a gurney while at the same time asking us why bother with any of it.
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