How do you review a book by someone whose prose is so exquisite and well-crafted you could spend your life trying to emulate it and never get there? In terms of language, Boyle is just so amazing. Recently, I read an interview where he said he stops reading critiques of his work because they're painful. He works so hard and then someone, with the wave of a hand, dismisses it. So, then, who am I to be critical? Who are any of us, really?

In terms of language, creativity, and imagery, the book is incredible. Also, it's fun to move from the 80s to a quasi-apocalyptic earthscape and make sense of how the world fell apart. For the commentary, satire, and insights, I appreciated the read. Where it didn't land for me was the characters' arcs. Best I could tell, none of them grew. Boyle himself says the human race is doomed and that it's folly to hope for otherwise. Maybe that's why he has his characters go on these journeys that take them, ultimately, nowhere. That's his world view and that's fully on view in this novel. However, I'm not sure his view is correct -- more or less, it's his vantage point, one of fatalism and timeworn cynicism.

I would have enjoyed this more had the characters reached a satisfying arc. None of them, not the daughter or the ex-wife or the rock 'n roll star nor the protagonist had an arc with growth. That may be why some people read his books and walk away disappointed. It's just not satisfying on a story level. Yet, the writing is just so good and there's so much to like on a literary level that Boyle is truly masterful with the English language. So, for those who love language and don't mind a lit fic story that's slow and enjoy the dazzling ride, this book could be for you.

t.c. boyle never disappoints me. a master weaver of fine stories. this time no exception.

More good stuff from TCB. Michael Jackson even makes an appearance(in disguise). Here's your SoCal "lifestyle" in the oncoming, unfolding climate apocalypse. Plus a commentary on activist-narcissists.

10-26-2021 ... Just finished the story "The Ghost Birds" by Karen Russell from a recent New Yorker. Another father-daughter climate disaster story.

"Because to be a friend of the earth, you have to be an enemy of the people."

This book is set in the near future, where we did not manage to stop climate change. An "eco-nut", who is now caring for a few animals that are not yet extinct, is confronted with his past.

The story switches from past to present, slowly giving away what happened to the main character Ty, and his family. Ty is an interesting character, but it was hard to root for him every now and then.

Although the premise of the story was interesting, I was a little bit let down by the form of activism Ty and the organization he was with engaged in. A big thing in the story is them trying to stop rainforest from being cut down, but they don't adress the cause of the problem. They didn't adress their own habits much. Ty doesn't support his daughters veganism, and eats meat even whilst the climate has broken down. I do have to cut the writer some slack here, as the past of Ty's story is set in the 90's, and the book was written in 2000. But it's strange that Ty is so cutthroat in his activism, whilst not changing much in his personal life.

Aside from that, I really did enjoy it. The book questions how far you should go for a cause, when it means endangering yourself and those closest to you. The reality Ty lives in in his present is tragic, and basically becoming our reality now as well.

A Friend of the Earth is an amusing read, and the ending was satisfying, but it did not give me what I was hoping for.

I enjoyed this one, but not as much as some of Boyle's other books. For some reason I had a hard time getting through this one and kept putting it down. If I had read it faster I believe I would have enjoyed it more. It is scary to see his vision of 2025 written in 2001 in 2020. It's not coronavirus it's "mucosa", but you'd better wear a mask. The climate change he envisioned is not all that far off either! Boyle is a tremendous writer and this is a solid tale of over the top environmentalism and monkeywrenching that any fan of Edward Abbey can enjoy.

This is one of the books that makes me feel very middle of the road. It's brilliant at points. Other points it's just a whole lot of environmentalist propaganda. Sometimes so heavy handed that it takes an earth loving hippie like me and hits me over the head with it so hard that it's hard to enjoy the actual story.
The interesting thing here is not that world is going to hell in a hand basket. Any child of the 80s and 90s well knows that rhetoric and how it plays out is almost exactly like any number of pamphlets you could have picked up at an Earth rally in those eras. Unfortunately, it feels like that's the story that is most focused on here.
The truly interesting story is about Ty Tierwater. Former Eco-Terrorist, convict and now caretaker of dying breeds of "the animals no one could love". The unsavory predators of the animal world. The metaphor here becomes clear that Ty is less of an environmentalist and more of an unsavory predator. He is the product of an unhappy, abusive household with a lot of anger at the world. He finds his outlet in Earth First!, an organization devoted to the saving the earth before it's too late. Chapters alternate between the world that hasn't been saved and the years of hopeless crusades to do exactly that. The journey of self discovery the Ty undertakes to find his peace is amazing. I wish there had been more emphasis on that.
It's summed up perfectly in the last line where he's walking a patagonian fox and meets a girl who distinctly reminds him of his dead daughter:
"Is it a dog?"
"That's right," I say, "that's right, she's a dog." And then, for no reason I can think of, I can't help adding, "And I'm a human being."

It's the ultimate statement of a wolf forced to end his days in sheep's clothing.

from James:

Most dystopia fiction seems so far removed from our common, everyday world that it’s scary only in the abstract. A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle, however, seems too real…and thusly, depressing. The book was published in 2000, but the story alternates between 1989 and 2025. It tells the story of Ty Tierwater and his escapades as a father, husband, and eco-crusader.

I first read the book when it was published and remember thinking: wow, climate change will never be that bad. I liked the book so much that I suggested it for this month’s March Madness Tournament of Books. Now, 14 years later, I re-read it and Boyle really seems to have captured the state of endangered species and our current unpredictable weather: from super storms to droughts. For me, that’s what makes A Friend of the Earth a frightening read. It sometimes sounds like nonfiction and it’s hard to remove yourself from the story. Fortunately, the downer side is redeemed through Boyle’s excellent writing.

By moving through time, we meet the characters and places that propel Tierwater’s story. From his (ex)wife to aging pop-star (a la Michael Jackson) Mac to his tree-hugger daughter Sierra, Ty discovers and confronts his idealism, his cynicism, and his mortality. While not a happy-go-lucky book, if you read novels for unique characters and stories, you might enjoy this book.

Ein sehr zwiespältiges Buch, das ich mehrfach beiseitelegen musste. Es fängt stark an. In typischer Boyle-Manier baut sich eine fast unerträgliche Spannung auf. Dann kommt der wirklich sehr langatmige Mittelpart. Selten konnte ich mehr als fünf Seiten am Stück lesen. Boyle beschreibt hier in einer Langatmigkeit Belanglosigkeiten, dass es mir schwerfiel, am Ball zu bleiben. Boyles düstere "Zukunftsvision" ist vielleicht etwas vorgegriffen, aber glaubhaft dargestellt. Die meisten seiner Charaktere, bis auf Ty, bleiben dieses Mal leider sehr flach. Da ist man mehr von ihm gewohnt. Am Ende nimmt das Buch noch einmal kurz Fahrt auf, rettet es aber bedauerlicherweise nicht über das Mittelmaß.

This was one of the harder post-climate change books I've read in a while. The outrageous characters. The ridiculous events. The tension between the next catastrophe and the unending pall of despair. I didn't want to watch the train wreck, but I couldn't stop either.

I haven't picked up a book since. Perhaps it was bad timing. I happened to read this while living through a week of smoke from three wildfires raging North, South and East of our area. And one of the hottest summers on record. And a county drought declaration. And the political storm raging from Nestle's efforts to bottle our water for profit.

Eco-terrorism? Civil disobedience? Political discourse? This book will not offer one over the other as the answer. Maybe its too late or it doesn't matter. Perhaps only the earth may survive our efforts to save the earth.

An enjoyable read, as T.C. Boyle’s books always are. I enjoyed this one a little less than several others I’ve read, notably Water Music and Drop City. Ty Tierwater, and the environmentalists more broadly (with the exception of Sierra, who… falls out of her protest tree and dies for no reason? Talk about a lackluster final moment for her as a character) come across as hypocritical, greedy, and worst of all: using environmental causes as a pretense for expressing anger through acts of destruction. This is all well and good and makes for fine character building, but there’s no real payoff and Ty stays the same old cantankerous, self-oblivious clown right up until the final page.

Nicht der beste Roman von TCB.
Aber durchaus ok und mit einigem Weitblick geschrieben.

Published and first read by me around the year 2000, this comic novel includes a vision of the year 2025. One pleasure of reading it now is to see how that vision might coincide with our impending future. It presents a world that is storm-lashed (tick), experiencing mass extinctions (tick), and threatened by viruses (OMG, tick), for example. There's a nicely-constructed plot, told alternately between present (2025) and past (1989). Good fun.