Modern Imagery
Boyle’s use of metaphor tends to be modernistic in that he engages jargon and slang and imagery instantly recognizable to American readers of his time:
“There was a cockiness to their gait that irritated her—even the woman walked like a football player.”
Setting the Stage
Boyle is fond of setting the stage for his stories by inserting a metaphorical image into the opening line to create a sense of tone and mood, such as the opening line of “Sinking House.”
“When Monty’s last breath caught somewhere in the back of his throat with a sound like the tired wheeze of an old screen door, the first she did was turn on the water.”
Unusual Nouns
Boyle relies more heavily on simile than metaphor and there may be an underlying reason. When he does choose to go for the direct comparison by suggesting something IS something, he seems to have a decided preference for an off-kilter noun that is as jarring at first as it is appropriate upon review:
“…the front lawn is a turmoil of purposefully moving bodies, of ramps, ladders, forklifts, flattened boxes in bundles…”
Knocking Jane Austen?
In this use of a simile, Boyle adds a little bit of flavor to his ironic humor by creating ambiguity. Is he referring merely to the acting of repetition in general…or is knocking Jane Austen? In referencing a woman whose job is teaching a course on Jane Austen, he muses over how one can tolerate “reading the same books over and over again, semester after semester, year after year. It was like a prison sentence.”
Meta-Metaphor
In “A Woman’s Restaurant” Boyle has his narrator make a self-conscious statement of awareness about his use of metaphor. First he describes a woman:
“She is like a stroke of winter…An early frost; a blight.”
And then, admitting he is not a poet any more than he is psychologist, he confesses:
“My metaphors are primitive, my actions impulsive.”
Perhaps it is this real worry about himself that leads Boyle to his preference for the simile over the metaphor and to search for new ways to state old things when he does opt to drop the "as" or "like."
