Greasy Lake T.C. Boyle

The "Greasy Lake" characters, Digby, whose parents paid his tuition to Cornell; Jeff, who had a dangerous personality; and the "wanna-be bad" narrator relish their "Bad Boy" image. T. C. Boyle describes their "Bad Boy" behavior: “we wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and ether [...]."[7] The lake, much like the character's foolish desires, has turned into a lagoon of refuse with broken bottles lining its banks. T.C. Boyle’s reference to war is as vivid as the lake, “so stripped of vegetation it looked as if the Air Force had strafed it.” [8] The mention of General Westmoreland's tactical errors in Khe Sahn equates to the main character's disastrous misguided offense of losing his car keys. A moral dilemma occurs but is not directly exposed, since the characters desire a 'Bad Boy' image, T.C. Boyle writes: "There was a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad".[9] However, an epiphany is reached when the "Bad Boys" realize that what they desire is not always a good thing.

Stories in volume

• "Greasy Lake"
• "Caviar"
• "Ike and Nina"
• "Rupert Beersley and the Beggar of the Sivan's-Hoota"
• "On for the Long Haul"
• "The Hector Quesadilla Story"
• "Whales Weep"
• "The New Moon Party"
• "Not a Leg to Stand On"
• Stones in my Passway, Hellhound on my Trail"
• "All Shook Up"
• "A Bird in the Hand"
• "Two Ships"
• "Bara Avis"
• "The Overcoat II"