James Finney Boylan *

Born in 1958. Brief academic details and his e-mail address can be found at his own Web Page. He'll be a visiting professor next year at University College Cork, Ireland.

(At the moment, I give the titles, year of publication, publisher, ISBN where I have it, and the blurb that appears on that edition.)

Short Stories

Remind Me to Murder You Later (Johns Hopkins University Press [ISBN: 0 8018 3728 6])

A collection of twenty short stories; "the book contains authentic juvenalia written from 1982-87".

As I Lay Married (forthcoming, some time after September 1998)

Novels

The Planets (1991, Bloomsbury. [ISBN 0 7475 0961 1])

"When lovesick Edith Schmertz takes an ill-fated leap out of an aeroplane on Easter Sunday, she sets in motion an inexorable chain of events, sending many human orbits spinning wildly out of control. A middle-aged bank president seeks temporary escape from a stifling marriage with a professional mime artist, part-time nudist, and office temp who strips away all externals in her search for pure truth. A little girl's birthday explodes into chaos when a pet rabbit crashes through her bedroom window; an entire family is kidnapped by a burro-riding hardware-stor robber; and a modern-day Pluto finds his Persephone.
"All of these characters are obsessed with human freedom -- sexual, personal, psychological -- and this rollicking journey through the solar system becomes an inward voyage to the centre of the human heart."

The Constellations (1995, Bloomsbury. [ISBN 0 7475 2119 0])

The long-awaited sequel to The Planets

"In Centralia, Pennsylvania, smoking and aflame since 1962 because of its inextinguishable underground mine fire, an unlikely group of local citizens embark on a bizarre odyssey which involves a tattoo parlour, a sculpted human brain, a decaying dog, and a cement mixer. An outrageously funny, intricately constructed novel of peculiar events and coincidences, The Constellations is an unforgettable tour of the comic and cosmic galaxies."

"Pat felt as though someone were holding his heart in a fist, slowly squeezing down on it with enormous fat fingers. It's inconceivable, he thought. Women really can't imagine the magnitude of love that men have for them. Our whole lives are spent like this, floating on the merciless clouds of our desire."

Getting IN (forthcoming: September 1998, Time/Warner)