The environmentalists were right. Have been right all along. This cynical parable suggests a world where we now have to cope with the effects of extreme climatic change. Unfortunately our president, and his legion of science-denying fools, don't read much more than the news banner at the bottom of the Fox News screen, so this cautionary tale feels all too possible.

I admire Boyle's short stories very much, and have read a wide array of them over the years, but this is my first foray into his novels. My response? This is pedal-to-the-metal stuff, furious metaphors flying in all directions. And no wonder. Leading man Ty Tierwater is the last of the angry old men, and he's our first-person narrator. Boyle is up to the task of setting down the the fire in Tierwater's aging pot-belly, but this title falls into the camp of "narratives that sustain their drama by allowing their lead character to make one terrible decision after another." Ty is almost impossible to root for, and I say this as someone very sympathetic to "eco-defense," the catch-all descriptor for most of Ty's criminal behavior. For a reader less predisposed to actively wanting to save the planet, I can't imagine what this book offers except a slap in the face. I wanted Ty to be better. He isn't, and never will be. Nor will the earth be saved ("saved") by my having nosed once more into eco-lit. In this, an election year in which none of the significant candidates will do a damn thing about the realities of global warming, not to mention the real danger, over population (nobody talks about that -- even Boyle only gives that one a sideswipe), well. This is just depressing.

TC Boyle is a master at the short story format. Unlike many authors, you cant guess by style where it will go: will you feel happy, sad, fulfilled, odd? He doesn't telegraph the path.

His stories also include all manner and class of people in all kinds of situations. This scope makes him my favourite short story writer.

One critique: his writing voice is not consistent. Sometimes he just seems a bit… stoned with the dialogue.

Once again I've encountered a book that is about issues I'm extremely interested in and concerned with, but the formal characteristics of the writing are problematic to me. I'd never considered reading any of T.C. Boyle's work, though I'd heard his name quite a bit. Then I heard about this book and its subject: a washed-up old environmental activist trying to survive in a 2025 world ravaged by the effects of the global climate change he had been trying to fight in his youth. I eagerly snapped up a copy.

It turns out that Boyle does a pretty decent job envisioning that future situation - although he doesn't touch the 2 other interrelated future dooms we're heading for, economic collapse and peak oil. My main problem, though, is his writing. He seems to be considered a serious literary-type author, I thought, but I couldn't help getting caught up in the various flaws of his prose. For instance, he tends to be one of those writers that employs useless, over-the-top metaphors (a metaphor, to my mind, should be used to compare one thing the reader is less familiar with to another thing that the reader is more familiar with, as a way of conveying more clearly what that first thing is. But Boyle is fond of the reverse - using something even less familiar as a metaphor, which might serve to illuminate the narrators inner monologue but doesn't work as effective description). He also seems uncertain whether he wants to use first person or third person, and whether he's writing a surreal satire or a piece of science-based realism.

I still enjoyed this book, and it really deserves more like a 3.5 star rating, but in the end it didn't satisfy, neither from an aesthetic, i'm enjoying-the-pleasure-of-reading-good-writing standpoint nor from a this-adeptly-explores-the-concepts-I-want-it-to standpoint. Maybe I was just looking for a different book. Nevertheless, the concept of "Tortilla Curtain", another of Boyle's books, intrigues me just enough to want to risk another go at his work, and I guess that's the best indicator of my opinion.

The book is entertaining and, in so far as it addresses climate change, effective enough, despite the 2000 copyright publication date. The structure is that of alternating chapters among a number of timelines in the main character’s life, so the reader is bounced around from the contemporary timeframe to earlier periods (and storylines) in the main character’s life; this kind of structure can be confusing, but the author’s use of dates in the chapter titles proves an easy fix. His work is often described as dark comedy and A Friend of the Earth certainly fits that bill, and readers may feel less than uplifted by the story, although the writing and the climate change theme of man’s stupidity and voraciousness in relation to the living world positively counters this reader's typically negative perception, of satire. It helps, too, that the characters are engaging, so the frustration a reader may feel about one or another character’s decisions (I wanted to dope slap the main character, Ty Tierwater, any number of times, for example) is offset by character engagement. T.C. Boyle seems happy enough to roast the devourers of the world and environmentalist alike, and points out the similarities that both classes of people share, including the tendency toward over-consumption. I don’t like dark comedies generally, and this book falls into the category of satire, but the book is very much worth a read. His descriptions of climate change consequences are off a few years (too early and/or too exaggerated), but close enough, especially given that the book came out a baker's dozen of year ago.

DNF pg 60

TC Boyle has long been one of the authors I most appreciate. This book only expanded my appreciation for him. It's the tale of an environmentalist who has reached his "young old age" and is exhausted from struggling against the degradation of the earth's environment and the tragedies of his personal life, which include the situation with the ex-wife he still loves but can't stop hating (haven't we all felt that way?). Set in the year 2025 (I think), it's a hilarious, frightening tale that warns readers of the ruination that the earth is suffering and the consequences humans will face as a result. Because of the humor he employs and the realistic portrayal of the possible results of global warming, Boyle avoids coming off like an alarmist or a crazy person. You'll be laughing at the character's antics, but you'll also be scared out of your pants that the life they lead in the book's present may also be our life in the near future.

The fate of the earth is not the issue for main character and narrator, Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater. He knows that it's doomed. But, so does the reader. The post-apocalyptic opening chapter is set in 2025 California. Nature is reclaiming the planet. Weather related disasters rage, wreaking havoc on the remaining lifeforms and infrastructure. Ty is the "last man standing" of a class of radical environmentalists from the "Earth Forever" movement. (It is a carbon copy of a 1980's environmental movement called "Earth First.") Ty is the last one, until the ex-wife calls to reconnect after many years of separation. Their protracted reunification is the dynamic through which author TC Boyle reveals the complex character of his seventy-five year old antihero. And, it works well. The book is a satirical blend of environmentalism and love story, in which aging adults play the leading roles. I found that part of the book quite enjoyable.
The part that left me shaking my head was the subplot about Tyrone's relationship with his daughter, and his abysmal judgment as a parent. The book alternates between the 2025 timeline and his years as a parent beginning in 1989. Tyrone's pathetic efforts to parent his teenage daughter is the author's vehicle for relating the history of the Earth Forever movement. Her mother is gone, the subject of an accidental death at a young age. In the opening chapter, Tyrone places his young teenage daughter in harms way to the point that she ends up in foster care far from home. And, it gets worse: culminating in a disturbing and unbelievable scene in which the hero fights off a young foster parent and a high-school aged youth, while somehow holding his thirteen year old daughter in his arms. The scene belongs in a comic book.
So, in my view the book is a mixed bag. If you enjoy TC Boyle's work, then I recommend it. If you're not already a fan, there are probably better places to start with his body of work.

There is a story behind why I chose to review A Friend of the Earth. In 2001, I bought the novel and could not get past the first few pages. I tried again and again. No go. So I dropped it in a box to be forgotten but not trashed. Roughly a year later I was rummaging around for a book to read and pulled it out. What the hell, I thought. I'll give it another try. The planets had aligned, apparently (or more likely this time I was mentally receptive) and, as with all his previous books, I immediately fell in love with his writing and the journey. His imagination is wild, his wit caustic, and he knows how to mess with your mind to provoke laughter and thought in a neuron-explosive way. And I mean that in a good way, even when the subject matter is bleak, as with this apocalyptic romp. Also, this novel has a great closing line. My point is this: Art is subjective, true, but sometime when your mind tunes into the right frequency you hear the music and not static. T.C.B. is – among the living or dead – one of our greatest writers.

So now I've finally caught up with who T.C. Boyle is. What a writer! This somewhat twisted tale is a real "page-turner" as they say. I was Laughing Out Loud with practically every page.

A compelling story about an over-the-top environmentalist who goes too far with his protests. There's a new book from Boyle which is a sequel to this one - an extension of the theme at least. I wonder if the new one will have a world-weary, cynical tone like this one?

One stylistic quibble - Boyle indulges in what could be called "Metaphor Mania." Everything is constantly described as being like something else. I found the constant barrage of metaphors tedious after a while - even though they were often very entertaining Metaphors. The constant use of them seemed a bit self-conscious and would sometimes unnecessarily slow down the pace of the story. A typical example from the opening page - "...the muck is tugging at my gum boots like a greedy sucking mouth..." - Good stuff, but for me, it got old after a while.

Nevertheless, the book was compelling up to the last page. WARNING - If you're at all concerned about how climate change is swiftly destroying our habitat - this book could end up really terrifying you.

Friend of the Earth is Boyle at his best! One of the amazing things about his books is that you always walk away knowing a bit more about the world, a bit more about the human experience, and end up with just as many questions as answers. The story is so well researched and the multiple plots are woven so masterfully. I will always remember these characters and the simultaneously hopeful and dystopian scenes in these pages! Despite the characteristically human flaws in the main characters, I'm very much drawn to explore deep ecology and other literature associated with that movement because of this book. This is a must read for anyone interested in climate change and the impact of humans on the earth.

Boyle's prose rings like poetry. Reading it was like savoring a piece of candy, each word brought something new. Its rare to find writing like this anymore. The story itself was engaging about a family of eco-saboteurs on a renegade mission to save the planet. Or at least as much of it as they possibly could. Highly recommended.