T.C. Boyle is one of America’s best prose stylists. In his eleventh novel, Talk Talk, the story is quite good, but it’s Boyle’s vibrant, fresh style that makes the book a great read.

Talk Talk is a dual narrative, alternating betwen the story of an identity thief, Peck Wilson, and his victim, Dana Halter, a deaf woman who’s fiercely independent despite her handicap. When Dana realizes that Peck has stolen her identity, using it to commit crimes, she sets out to avenge herself. Peck notices he’s being pursued, and the chase is on.

Boyle uses identity theft as a metaphor to explore identity – what it is, how it’s “owned” or “stolen.” Interestingly, Boyle portrays Peck as something of a sympathetic character, and Dana as sometimes so ornery and difficult (in her relationship with her boyfriend) that the strict white hat/black hat dimension is blurred.

Here’s the first paragraph. Notice all the details Boyle includes. Like exactly where Dana found her coat (underneath her blue corduroy jacket on the coat tree in the front hall), and how authentically he puts us inside Dana’s mind as she hurries. The effect is to submerge the reader in Boyle’s invented world, which he does wonderfully:

“She was running late, always running late, a failing of hers, she knew it, but then she couldn’t find her purse and once she did manage to locate it (underneath her blue corduroy jacket on the coat tree in the front hall), she couldn’t find her keys. They should have been in her purse, but they weren’t, and so she’d made a circuit of the apartment — two circuits, three — before she thought to look through the pockets of the jeans she’d worn the day before, but where were they ? No time for toast. Forget the toast, forget food. She was out of orange juice. Out of butter and cream cheese. The newspaper on the front mat was just another obstacle. Piss-warm — was that an acceptable term? Yes — piss-warm coffee in a stained mug, a quick check of lipstick and hair in the rearview mirror, and then she was putting the car in gear and backing out onto the street.”