SOURCE: A review of Without a Hero, in Booklist, Vol. 90, No. 12, February 15, 1994, p. 1035.

In the following excerpt, Mort comments favorably on Without a Hero, and Other Stories.

If he wants to, Boyle can summon the angst for your standard realistic novel. In this collection's title story ["Without a Hero"], for example, he tells of a newly divorced fellow who inadvertently becomes the host of a young Russian woman who is awestruck by the bounty of America; our distinctly unheroic narrator won't marry her and thus forces her into prostitution. Boyle draws from this premise an indictment of capitalism as well as two engaging character studies. His mockery is at the center of things elsewhere, however, in stories that are less psychological studies than satirical conceits, such as "Big Game." Set on a hunting preserve near Bakersfield, it's send-up of Green Hills of Africa, complete with Boyle's deadpan gun...