Mr. Boyle used variations of this tragicomic trajectory to wonderful effect in an earlier story collection, ''Descent of Man,'' and two novels, ''Water Music'' and ''Budding Prospects,'' all widely (and justly) praised for their manic wit, lush, baroque language and narrative invention. What hasn't been sufficiently emphasized, however, is that beneath its surface play, erudition and sheer storytelling power, his fiction also presents a disturbing and convincing critique of an American society so …showed first 75 words of 588 total…

…showed last 75 words of 588 total…of Gogol's surreal classic) and ''Rupert Beersley and the Beggar Master of Sivani-Hoota'' (a clever spoof of the detective yarn), as well as myth and fantasy in ''The New Moon Party'' (where a Presidential candidate is swept into office by promising to replace our old, pockmarked moon with a glittering manmade replacement) and ''The Hector Quesadilla Story'' (an aging Mexican ballplayer is inserted into a baseball game that apparently will go on forever). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**