This novel juxtaposing a story set in the recent past with one set in the recent future offers up an interesting picture of ecological disaster, though the focus is character more than idea. It takes a while to get going, but it is ultimately a quite powerful and enjoyable book, as one would expect of Boyle.

TC Boyle is a fine writer, and I had no idea when I picked up this book where it would take me. The plot had me questioning my views on parenting, environmentalism, global warming and man's place in the universe before I was finished. In addition, there were two or three times the plot had me squirming uncomfortably as I realized the story was taking me places emotionally I didn't want to go, such as facing the loss of a child (I hope I never have to). To get to the end of the story I had to push through my own fears and misconceptions, and today I'm a better person for it. It is a rare book that will transform the way you think and feel, and this is one of them. I have two more TC Boyle novels waiting for me, and I can't wait to see how they stack up!

I really, really enjoyed this novel and can easily recommend it. You can check out the  long version or stay here for a shorter one.

A Friend of the Earth is quite different from many environmentally- or eco-based novels I've read. While some of the normal dystopian scenarios are in place, and the author in his own way lets his readers know that there is little to no hope for the future, it also makes you laugh as Mr. Boyle puts irony ahead of heavy-handedness or preaching -- since, as the main character notes, it's much too late for that.

It's 2025, and Tyrone (Ty) Tierwater works as the caretaker of a private collection of animals. Ty, in his 70s, has a good gig working for a millionaire pop star who's been trying to save some of the last critically-endangered animals before they're gone for good. As a result of global warming and the collapse of the biosphere, these days, floods, rain, heat and nightmarish winds are the norm. Ty lives a simple life, taking care of the animals and then going out for the occasional drink of sake, but that all changes when one day, without warning, his ex-wife Andrea shows up with news that a writer is interested in penning the story of their daughter Sierra. But it's not the only reason she's there -- she has plans to restart Earth Forever!, the environmental-activism group they were part of in the past, "for the survivors." Andrea's return is what prompts the story of Ty's former days as a monkeywrenching member of the group, complete with berets, raised fists and acts of ecotage, at a time when "to be a friend of the earth, you have to be an enemy of the people." As the narrative goes back in time, it reveals not only the motivations behind Ty's actions (which may not be quite what you'd expect), but also how eventually he came to sacrifice much more than he bargained for in the process of doing his part in saving the planet. It's a wonderful book, much less heavy-handed than I expected from its beginning.

One of the messages to be found here is that we're all involved in a paradoxical relationship with our planet's future: progress gives us the little gadgets and gizmoes we love and demand, but at the same time our consumer habits are partially to blame for the planet's woes; we also care about what happens to the environment, but at the same time few people these days are going to go live completely off the grid in total tune with nature. It's all about compromise. These points are illustrated amply and ironically throughout this novel, which I only put down reluctantly when forced by outside circumstances to do so.

It's pleasantly way better than what I first expected after reading the cover blurb, and while it tended to receive lower star ratings from most reviewers, I recommend it highly. I think it hit me long after I'd put down the book just how cool it really is.

I saw Boyle on a talk show so I ordered this off of ABDBOOKS for $1. That was one well spent buck. Set about 20 years in the future Boyle manages to spin social and environmental concerns into something that is never ham handed or preachy but just breathtaking. The writer knows and loves his characters like Tye who starts out an environmentalist and winds up an eco-terrorist. I think the reason he does not come of as smug or preachy is he really believes it is game over. Some new political party in 4 years, in his mind would mean as much as a new turd in the road tomorrow. There is so much to love about Boyle's writing I will just offer you a $1 money-back guarantee if you don't like A Friend of the Earth.

This book successfully uses fiction as social commentary on the environmental history and politics of America. The writing is smooth and the imagery evocative - the crisp and cool mountain air of the sierra nevada forests at the end of the last century in stark contrast to what the future in 2025 could very likely be: charred, dusty and yet filled with violent storms and extreme weather, a world largely bereft of wildlife, where swathes of forests lie destroyed. Indeed, Boyle portrays a bleak, sad, and overcrowded dystopian future. It is depressing to watch how the protagonist fails to make any difference to the destruction of the planet despite being an active militant environmentalist in his prime years in the 80s and 90s, as flashbacks during the later years of his life as a pathetic, bitter man attest to. However its a satirical novel, and Boyle's work is one of black humor, serving to dull the pessimistic environmental message running through the book, resulting in a highly enjoyable and imaginative piece of fiction.

T.C. Boyle is a great storyteller. Things happen, narrative moves, conclusions develop – and he is entertaining. But here, in A Friend of the Earth, he takes a meandering path and imposes a leisurely pace, one in which there are many more paragraphs than actions, and the tale being told develops gradually, while overcoming extended weather and old-age soliloquies – it rains all the time; it rains hard; it floods highly, thoroughly. Yup; understood. But then it rains on the rain, and joints crack and age hangs heavily over life like a sopping tarp on poles. It’s a style, but a bit more movement and a bit less grinding on rain and senescence would have been welcome.

And at times there is an endless stream of metaphor and simile. Everything being something else grows tiring. The writing is colorful and energetic, but with the seeming focus on making something abstract concrete, whether it’s abstract or not is in places strained. One visualizes a balloon head expanded to the point of bursting, the face twisted and stretched, exaggerated past recognition.

But criticisms aside, there is a good story here, told in two halves, the beginning of the end and the end of the end, some 35 years apart. Ty, the protagonist, is effectively the title character, the Friend of the Earth. He warps his life around whatever he can do to Save the Planet, having degrees of short-term success, but ultimately achieves only long-term failure. This recalls Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle – the fight against Big Money, Big Business, and Big Destructions: “progress” organizations paving paradise for the next parking lot. Boyd parallels Steinbeck in his depiction of Ty – a tool of the correct, the righteous, the proper, and one used by the movement he bleeds for, never realizing he is nothing but a tool, a means to an end.

Essentially, we have the story of that tool – a failed tool or one who failed at being a tool for the environmental movement or evolved into an anarchistic one, though eventually everyone realizes his outmoded, politically incorrect tactics were in fact exactly what was needed to prevent civilization from destroying the planet and turning it into an extreme weather wasteland.

In conclusion: as always, Boyle spins an enjoyable yarn, but here he does so at too slow a pace: a bit more pep would have been welcome. Oh, and the ending is cliché, but then how else could the book have ended?

“Global Warming. I remember a time when people debated not only the fact of it but the consequence. […]. The greenhouse effect, they called it. And what are greenhouses but pleasant, warm, nurturing places, where you can grow sago palms and hydroponic tomatoes during the deep-freeze of the winter. But that’s not how it is at all. No, it’s like leaving your car in the parking lot in the sun all day with the windows rolled up and then climbing in and discovering they have been sealed shut - and the doors too.”

"I've never believed in vegetarianism myself, except as an ecological principle - obviously, you can feed a whole lot more people on rice or grain than you can on a feed-intenstive animal like a steer, and, further, as everyone alive today knows, it was McDonald's and Burger King and their ilk that denuded the rain forests to provide range for yet more cows, but, still, I don't make a religion of it. Meat isn't the problem, people are."
* Ty Tierwater

You can always rely on T.C. Boyle for an entertaining read. Here, our future (the year 2025) is described in the bleakest (and at times depressing) terms: Due to our destruction of the environment, people are suffering from extreme weather conditions. At the moment, a neverending rainstorm rages for months, which makes normal living difficult. Most animals and plants are extinct, all there is to drink is sake, and the hero of the story, Ty Tierwater, has a job looking after the animals in the private menagerie of a former rock star.
Interspersed with the 2025 narrative is Ty's story of the 1980s and 90s: He was a militant environmentalist then, together with his wife and daughter (who, we slowly get to know, died under mysterious circumstances). His sabotage actions (described with much suspense) were often stupid, but in the light of 2025 he seems to have been right to warn everyone about destroying the environment.
The story has a mind-boggling climax, some humour, bizaare characters, an unlikely hero, some mysteries that are solved along the way, and almost a happy end - everything that makes an entertaining book!

Great story, the old dissillusioned environmentalist remembers past events form his activities of the 1980's eco-defence days. The story though is also set in 2025 and the planet is largely buggered. Lots of compassion and warmth amongst the storms of life and death.

An engaging, cautionary tale that moves easily back and forth from a not-so-distant past to a not-too-distant future, following one man's quixotic quest to stave off our collective destruction of the planet.

My first T.C. Boyle novel, I look forward to the next, as he displays a wonderful way with words, reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut, which had me reaching regularly for my dictionary. One example, among many: "I see faces as seamed and rucked as the road coming up here, rheumy eyes, fallen chins, clumps of nicotine-colored hair bunched in nostrils and ears--we're among our own at last."

I also liked how Boyle wrestled with a theme at the core of my own novel: how much is too much when trying to positively change the world? I'd give this novel 3 1/2 stars, if possible, for its rich characters and well-drawn settings, and would have gone even higher with a slightly more-involved plot.

Kirk Wolcott
Author of the international thriller A Simple Game
Proprietor of the blog Pen & Globe at kirkwolcott.com

I feel like it should be 1 star but there are worse books so I will keep it a 2. I read this because I recently read Drop City which I highly enjoyed, following that with A Friend of the Earth was a big letdown. I disliked every character in the book with the exception of Chuy and Chuy only got about a page of type throughout the book. I would explore some of his other books before settling on this one. If you want to read about monkey wrenching, read The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. T.C. Boyle mentions Ed Abbey in the book, so that is nice..