Will the real Boyle please stand up?
By Chris DeninaStaff Writer
Friends know him as Tom
Boyle, his students know him as T.C. Boyle and readers around the world
know him as T. Coraghessan Boyle.With a different name for
each part of his life, one might be confused as to exactly who he is. But
in person, there's no mistaking his tall frame, frazzled, curly hair and
bright red Converse shoes.First, Boyle the writer:
award-winning author of 11 books, some of which include "World's End," "The
Tortilla Curtain" and "The Road to Wellville."Boyle the teacher:
professor of English. He has been teaching at USC since 1978, when he
helped start the creative writing program. Today, he teaches intermediate
and advanced fiction writing.For Boyle, teaching wasn't
exactly something he expected to get into."When I graduated, I was 21
and I had never taught any classes. I didn't have any desire to," said
Boyle, who received a Ph.D. in 19th-century British literature and a
master's degree in fine arts in creative writing from the University of
Iowa. "This was at the height of
the Vietnam war. They had weighed and measured me. One way to avoid that
was if you were teaching."Instead of landing halfway
around the world, the New York native landed in California, where he makes
the twice-a-week trek to the university from his home in Santa Barbara -- a
commute that runs about 100 miles each way and gets tedious, he said.But the drive isn't what
taxes his energy the most. Rather, it's balancing academia with his
professional career."I'm running crazily all
over the world to promote my books. It makes it hard to live a normal
life," said Boyle, who has a wife and three children.Although his literary agent
says he shouldn't teach, Boyle doesn't plan on choosing between the two
worlds."From the beginning, USC
gave me a schedule wherein I worked two days a week. I've learned to work
around that and have been very productive," he said.Boyle published many books
while teaching at the university. Boyle's 11th book, "Riven Rock" comes out
in February from Viking. In addition, a collection of his short stories
will come out next fall."The promotion and touring
is tough. In 1995, I did 30 cities in America and another 10 in Europe for
`The Tortilla Curtain.' It's really tiring," Boyle said.Balancing his two careers
sometimes requires a little rescheduling. For "Riven Rock," which took more
than 13 months to write, the university gave him a semester off."As it works out, I've been
taking every third semester off," Boyle said.He will take a semester off
next fall for another book tour. After a dozen books, Boyle said his
favorite was his first, "Water Music," "because I didn't know how to write
novels then. I have a special affection for that one.""Each book feels good.
`Riven Rock' may be my best book. But that's how I feel before every book
comes out," he said.And each time they do, a
new surge of fan mail pours in. But some fans are students. Some of them
discovered his stories through classes in which the books were assigned,
either here at the university or in high school, which thrills him, he
said. A few of them even ask him to autograph copies of his books."The odd thing is, it often
happens around Christmas time," he said.Every Tuesday, the
Daily Trojan will profile a
member of the USC faculty and staff.