Critical Response 6

Colleen Mundy
Dr. Tony Barnstone
ENGL 302
April 7, 2009
Critical Response #6

Critical Response to T.C. Boyle’s “Greasy Lake”
I actually really enjoyed reading this story. Boyle, in my opinion, did a great job drawing readers into his characters and getting them involved in the story. One thing that really stood out to me about his characters, however, is that they may have seemed like bad characters and may have gotten in that fight, but the only really bad thing that happened in that fight was the one swing with the tire iron. Also, Digby and Jeff seemed to disappear very quickly when the situation turned and other people showed up at Greasy Lake. They seemed to run away in my opinion and leave the narrator alone.
Another big thing that stood out to me was the fact that the narrator is never named. Digby and Jeff have specific names, but the narrator, who is relaying all of the information, remains unnamed. Even the dead biker is given a name. But when Digby tries to get the narrator to drive away at the end of the story, after the fight and after the car has been destroyed, he calls “his name,” but we as readers never know what that name is.
I think that Boyle includes some great plot twists, number one being the fact that the man was not dead after the fight. I also liked the finding of the dead biker. That is something that one would expect to find at a lake described so in detail as Greasy Lake.