Mike Boyle, author: Dollhouse is his book

Mike Boyle is an author. Dollhouse (Google cache link, in case Thieves Jargon changes it), his recent book—published by Thieves Jargon Press—is a fuzzily fictionalized account of a certain slice of his adventures that takes place between PA and NYC during a significant chunk of the 1980s. Mike Boyle tells the story of his life as it surrounds and informs playing in a punk band called New Left. You may enjoy reading an excerpt from his Thieves Jargon book Dollhouse. This is chapter 25 of Dollhouse, entitled The Dakota.

You can even go to the Thieves Jargon website and buy Mike Boyle's book Dollhouse, if you want.

I've read just about everything I could find of his by surfing off of Michael J. Boyle's Blogger|Blogspot site, Bohobait. The name "Bohobait" is the umbrella title he's used for awhile as a sort of personal identifier, and as something to call his self-recorded musical projects from the early 1990s—(Symphony #1 and Eagle's Son). You'll have to contact Michael J. Boyle directly if you want to know the origin and meaning of the name|title of Bohobait.

Full-revelation: I feel like a sheepish idiot because I haven't purchased a copy of Dollhouse. Chalk that up to me being a broke-ass, lazy, procrastinating jackass. One of these days I'm going to purchase a copy of Mike Boyle's book Dollhouse, and then I hope to figure out a way to not come off like a total douche bag when I request that he sign it for me. Mike Boyle is also currently accepting—and tossing in the trash can—publisher's rejection notices for his follow-up to Dollhouse entitled King of the Streets. I have no doubt that somebody will pick up the book. Dollhouse, from what glimpses I've had of it, showcases Mike Boyle's voice as an author, and King of the Streets is supposed to either take up where Dollhouse left off, or it runs concurrently with that story, I'm not sure which.

Michael J. Boyle has a long history of writing poetry, as well as autobiographical prose and narratives. Mike Boyle has been submitting his writing to zines and websites and publishers for many years. Michael J. Boyle has had a respectable amount of his writing published. (shameless Google spider flogging continues at the Permalink)

I've been loosely acquainted with Mike Boyle since about 1971 or '72, but only knew a few tangential details about him. We had tons of acquaintances in common, a by-product of going to the same high school and because of our shared self-indulgences into some of the same types of entertainment. I only saw Mike Boyle 2 or 3 times in the intervening time until the summer of 1994 when we briefly played together—coincidentally with 2 other guys we went to high school with—in a band that went nowhere. I had fun doing it, and wanted to work through the conflicts we were having, continue playing, tightening up and defining the unnamed band's sound. But it blew up within a couple-three months of its inception, as a million bands do every week. So it goes. That's a whole 'nother story, and parts of it are referenced in some of Mike Boyle's writing.

Somehow, I stumbled upon Mike Boyle's Bohobait MySpace page a few years ago, and have struck up a more informative—though still somewhat tentative—online friendship with him. Mike Boyle's life is simultaneously convoluted and simple, just like mine and just like yours. But the difference between Mike Boyle and a lot of the rest of us is that he doesn't always just let life slide over him, barely noticed. That's too easy. That's too lame-brained. Mike Boyle examines and dissects, and distills, and reimagines, and edits, and tears it all down and builds it back up. It's a set of habits that can wreak havoc on the psyches of the less-than-fearless. Michael J. Boyle tackles it with style, and we are all better for his efforts. I'm proud to call Mike Boyle a friend, even though we haven't physically been in the same place at the same time in 14 years.

Now that that's all been said, all that remains is to see whether Google's spiders grab the overt content-stuffing of this blog entry and boost Mike Boyle's stock in search results.

Oh, and Hi Mike. Got your pain-in-the-ass house prepped for winter?