T.C. Boyle's 6 favorite books that explore man's inherent violence

The prolific novelist recommends works by William Faulkner, Robert Stone, and more

T.C. Boyle
(Image credit: (Photo courtesy of author))

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (Mariner, $20). My favorite of this ultrahip, bad-boy writer's novels. A drug deal goes wrong (do drug deals ever go right?), and one of our recent literature's hardest hombres, Ray Hicks, picks up his rifle and takes on all comers just to feel the sharp edge of the world rubbing up against him. A beautiful, tense, Vietnam-haunted book.

Black Robe by Brian Moore (Plume, $16). Moore was a real magician, capable of writing exquisite character-oriented books. This 1985 novel is as powerful an evocation of crazed fortitude and American frontier savagery as I've ever come across, James Fenimore Cooper notwithstanding. The title refers to the term the Iroquois applied to the French priests come among them to bring the word of an alien god. Yes, and God help the priests.

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