T.C. Boyle returns to Iowa City this week for a pair of events presented by the University of Iowa Center for Advancement and the UI Lecture Committee. First, tonight, May 4, those orgs join with FilmScene for a screening of The Road to Wellville, the 1994 film based on Boyle’s 1993 novel of the same name, at FilmScene—Chauncey. Boyle will discuss the book’s real-life inspiration and the process of translating it to the screen. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.; tickets are $12 general admission or $9.50 for seniors (60+), children (12 and under) and UI students.
Thursday, May 5, Boyle will take to the Englert Stage at 7:30 p.m. in an “Iowa Literary Legends” program hosted by the Center for Advancement and the Lecture Committee in conjunction with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature. He’ll be reading selections from the impressive body of work he has built up over nearly 50 years. The free event can be attended in person (masks and proof of vaccination/negative Covid test required) or online (registration required).
I interviewed Boyle in April of 2019 about his novel Outside Looking In, which had been recently released. I suggested the book, which centers on Dr. Timothy Leary and his adherents in the early 1960s, was of a piece with a number of his earlier works in that it featured an insular community with ideals that ultimately seem impossible to sustain.
Boyle, who earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1974 and a Ph.D. in 19th Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, acknowledged that cults and other tight-knit communities had “become a kind of obsession of mine … I wonder what the cost is to someone to be a follower of someone else.” But he framed his primary interests somewhat differently.
“I think if you go back through my 28 books including the short stories, you’ll see what my themes and obsessions are,” he told me. “Essentially, I’m an environmental writer wondering about our place as animals on this earth and why is the earth and why are we and so on and so on.”
The “so on and so on” may be what has driven — and continues to drive — his prolific (and much lauded) career. Since my conversation with the author, he has released another novel (2021’s Talk to Me) and he has a short story collection titled I Walk Between the Raindrops dropping in September of this year.
Boyle’s primary concerns have always been relevant, but feel especially attuned to this challenging moment when the nature of humanity, how it acts in groups when directed by a charismatic leader, and what it does to the environment are all heightened and existential questions. The work of this “literary legend” has perhaps never been so timely as it is right now.
