School shootings, Covid-19 quarantines, toxic masculinity: these are just a few of the hot-button subjects T.C. Boyle (The Relive Box and Other Stories; The Harder They Come; San Miguel) explores in I Walk Between the Raindrops, his collection of 13 surprising and imaginative stories. In the title selection, a man gains the unwanted attention of a mentally unstable woman at a bar before trying unsuccessfully to play matchmaker for an old friend, tragically misreading both situations. "Asleep at the Wheel" imagines a world where such technology as robot police and self-driving cars usurp the authority of the people they aim to serve, and "The Thirteenth Day" delves into the early pandemic experiences of a couple trapped on a cruise ship under quarantine, their fear and boredom both humorous and palpable.
Boyle's voice, a mainstay of short fiction for nearly five decades, is distinctive and a bit ornery, giving each tale a particular texture and making even mundane interactions feel meaningful. In a moment of ominous foreshadowing in "The Apartment," an unusually robust elderly woman proclaims: "Not only am I hardly ever ill, but I make a point of keeping all my blood inside my body at all times--don't you think that's a good principle to live by?" One thing all of the characters seem to have in common, though, is a sense of aloofness, as though they are both appalled by and impervious to the tragedies that surround them. What results is a collection that is thought-provoking and quietly funny, even as it serves as an unsettling reminder that no one is ever truly safe. --Angela Lutz, freelance reviewer