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Roksana Kwiek
American Short Stories since 1960 till the beginning of the 21st century
Prof. UG, dr hab Marta Koval
T.C. Boyle Chicxulub
17 May 2016
A Reader Response to T.C. Boyles Chicxulub

Chicxulub, a short story by T.C. Boyle, was published in The New Yorker on March
1, 2004 and later made into a short film in 2006. This story is about a couple, Ted and
Maureen Biehn, getting a phone call late at night from the hospital saying their daughter,
Madeline Biehn, had been hit by a car and is in surgery. They rush to the hospital and wait for
hours, stressing about their daughter. Later, come to find out that the girl in the hospital was
Madelines friend, Kristi Cherwin, who had Madelines I.D. so she could get into an NC-17
rated movie. Their daughter was at home all along. It is interesting that these parents come
home and they are not clinging to their daughter and celebrating. They are like that because
they realized that they have made an ugly deal with the devil. It would be different if it turned
out that it was only a dog that got run over; however, someones daughter has died and the
feeling one gets in that final paragraph is one of certain amount of guilt that joy they felt on
seeing the body was morally wrong. Of course a parent would feel this huge flush of relief,
but someone else has to go through what they were just spared.
Boyle adds another event to the story which is about the Chicxulub asteroid that
collided with Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out 75 percent of life on the planet. The

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narrative of this civilization ender, as Boyle puts it, is placed paragraph by paragraph within
the story of the married couple trying to reach their daughter at the hospitaltheir own
ender of sorts (Boyle). This lets the author take control of the couples shock, grief, anger,
and all the other seizing emotions that come with a midnight phone call from the emergency
room. By contrasting the events of the story with the asteroid, all things seem small and
singular but still carry enough importance. The melodrama is refreshing because it occurs
against a global backdrop. Any emotions the characters experience are overshadowed by the
greater tragedy, so they arent overwritten. Furthermore, the meteor is an element in the story
that creates the exposition throughout. It sets up the tone; which consists of being suspenseful,
scary, and frantic. When Boyle uses the meteor, it is to set up the next scene coming up and
leaves the reader in suspense as to what is going to come up next. The story of Biehns life is
interrupted by some facts and description of the meteor. This technique creates a cliffhanger
feeling that encourages the reader to read more and see what is going to happen. It occurs
frequently and because of that, the reader may start guessing how the situation will end. This
can lead to the grim outcome of the events. However, it actually falsely foreshadows the
outcome of the story because the reader finds out that Madeline was safe and sound.
Additionally, it symbolizes the catastrophic event of what the parents are going through. Just
like the meteor destroys everything, the death of their daughter would ruin their lives. In that
moment they realize that life should not be taken for granted. As Ted says the thing that
disturbs me about Chicxulubis the deeper implication that we, and all our works and
worries and attachments, are so utterly inconsequential (Boyle). No one knows when ones
time is up until it is too late.
What is interesting, Boyle took some things from real life, like headlines and scientific
discoveries, and plants that with a fictional smaller per small narrative. Because of that, reader
can feel anchoring. What is more, it makes the fiction feel more useful, more integrated with

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the world, not floating off as some kind of abstract distraction. It integrates with reality and
uses bits and pieces of reality, a little bit like the way a visual artist will use objects in a
collage, finding and using pieces of junk. And that is what Boyle did here, using a newspaper
as way to find different objects. The language in the story is clear and detailed, taking the
reader directly into the narrator's experience. He gives us every moment, every emotion, with
no filter, only an increasing sense of panic and growing hopelessness. There is no patronizing,
literary tone hereonly the raw, painful, minute details embedded by intense fear and pain.
The story has this enormous impact because everyone has someone who he or she
loves, even if they do not have children. There always is a person whose death would be
devastating. When the reader gets to the ending, some relief could be felt. However, it is a
false relief. And that is what is so good about the last line. It can make people weep because
the relief is wrong, false. It occurred just because the reader formed the temporary alliance
with this narrator. But why one should be happy that it was not ones daughter and it is
someone elses? The reader still suffers for that loss and the author is reminding of the
universality of this loss, and that it will hit you, and it will hit other people you know. This is
the nature of things. In just as Chicxulub itself the fact that we are in the way of all this
pieces of space junk is real, the imminent loss is real and there is no relief. There is only
reprieve. Looking closely at the falsity of the relief, the reader can go in one direction in
which is the grief is real and it hits someone. Or in other direction in which one can say that
both of these girls are fictional. So it pulls you out in a way that you have to look at the
situation from a different angle. Either is it a reprieve or you can sort of put it behind you in a
way. However, it does not let you off the hook for the people whose death could ruin your life.
That is where the readers get back to the importance of the Chicxulub interlude. That the
author is talking about reality from which you do not get away just as you do not from
mortality.

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In conclusion, the story offers the end of attachment, of experiencing loss. There is
cleanliness to it. At the end of the story the readers does not feel the cleanliness because they
are all here if they are still reading the story. This is one of the most distinguishing features of
being a human; it is the experience of loss. If nothing means anything to you then you do
notcare about anything going away, anyone in your life, anything in your life, anything around
you. That is why being so moved at the end of the story is actually a wonderful feeling even
though it is a form of sadness; moreover, it is also an acknowledgment of love. The message
of the story is not that we should stop carrying. It is about embracing the mourning and what
is more, reminding the reader not to take advantage of life, and live while they can because it
could hit them at any moment, no matter what form it is in.

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Works Cited
Boyle, T. Coraghessan. "Chicxulub." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2004. Web.
13 May 2016.