Rating: 
Summary: Author Sharing Personal Message
Review: I just finished this book this morning. It moved at a good pace and remained an interesting look into the mind of an eco-terrorist in its pages. I believe that this book was a work by the author to express his sincere feelings on the environment and I believe that this book will be look back on in future years. Some scoff at its predictions of the future but it may not be that far off. Just yesterday a study was released on a mass scale stating that the global warming may begin to do major damage in as little as 10 years.
Whatever your opinion of the politics of the book it is an enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: What are you waiting for?
Review: I've got a question for you. Have you ever read anything by Mister T. Coraghessan Boyle before? If the answer is "No", stop. Stop reading right now. Go buy the book. Go buy all of the books. What Salman Rushdie said about Ray Carver ("Read everything Raymond Carver wrote"), I say about T. Coraghessan. Go read everything. Start with "Riven Rock" (I did - it's a great introduction), then read "The Tortilla Curtain" and "East is East" (a samurai in a writer's village) and don't stop until you've blasted your way through "World's End", "Budding Prospects" (the great lost Coen Brother's masterpiece that never was) and "Water Music" (which is sort of Merchant Ivory retold by Kurt Vonnegut). No joke. I mean it. Your life will be richer as a direct result of reading all of these novels. Read them all and then come back here. You answered "Yes". Great. Italicise that. We're old friends, already. I don't have to come over all John the Baptist on you. You know. You wouldn't be here otherwise. I can say the mighty T. Coraghessan, knowing you feel the same way (knowing that - if you read books at all, and you've read T. Coraghessan before - you'll probably have dipped into the aforementioned Ray Carver and Kurt Vonnegut along with maybe - ooooooh, where do we start -Richard Brautigan, Tom Robbins, John Fante, John Irving, Charles Bukowski and Jim Dodge thrown in for good measure). It means I can let you down gently. "A Friend of the Earth" is a sort of sci-fi eco-nightmare epic. Like "Water Music" or "The Tortilla Curtain" it pans backwards and forwards between two characters. Unlike "Water Music" and "The Tortilla Curtain", those two characters are versions of the same guy, Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater (and don't you feel he's been waiting to use that name for years?). "A Friend of the Earth" is Boyle's take on Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" : you get a first-person Tierwater in 2025 and a third-person Tierwater over a period of eight years between July 1989 and December 1997. The 2025 Tierwater is part of the "young-old" (which means he's ancient, but - because medicine has improved, and people are living way longer - not "old-old"). Along with a Mexican (Spanish? Hell, I don't know) guy called Chuy, he manages a menagerie of almost-extinct animals for the world-famous pop star, Maclovio Pulchris (or "Mac"). The world is a terrible place. The climate has gone crazy. If it isn't tied down, it'll blow away. You've got to expect floods and typhoons and sand storms every single hour of the day. What are you going to do? Into this world steps Andrea, his ex-wife. She wants Tierwater to tell his story. Their story. Sierra's story. Pan back to the 1989 Tierwater. He's a flake with a kid, Sierra. His wife died from a wasp sting. He's had to raise his girl alone. Which he's done admirably. It's just he's bored. When the Earth Forever! flyer drops through his door - inviting him to some awareness-raising function - he's off like a shot. One fully-fledged eco-terrorist later, Tierwater is off engaging in all manner of no-good, Commie, dope-smoking, world-saving. Which is fine. Great, even. Lots of fun. It's just - I know you're asking me - there are only four stars up there instead of five, right? I have to explain that. This is not the best T. Coraghessan book there ever was. There is some indefinable minor chord at work here. I can't put my finger on it. If you asked me to explain what the problem is, I'd hold my hands up and say I don't know. Reading a T. Coraghessan novel is a joy (a pure pure joy, I mean it), but there were points - small quickly-passed points, but points all the same - when I checked to see how long a particular chapter was so that I knew how long before . . . uhm . . . things got going again. At the same time, a good T. Coraghessan Boyle novel is head and shoulders above ninety-nine-point-nine other novels. So. Even though there are only four stars up there, it should be forty-four stars in comparison with other novels. Just so you know.
Rating:
Summary: Staying Power
Review: I've only read this book and East is East by the author, but I have to say that unlike many reviewers, I thought it was great. I liked it better then East is East (which I also liked).
Depressing? Yes, but hey if this book depresses you there's still time do something about it. The writing was great and the characters (in all of their imperfection) have real staying power. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: not his best effort
Review: In this offbeat novel, T.C. Boyle brings his usual blend of sharp humor and social commentary. The chapters alternate between the present and the year 2026 when humans have killed off all the animal species, destroyed the ozone layer and vacated the earth of trees. We follow the career of Tyrone O'Shaughnessy who starts out as a committed environmentalist and ends up doing time as an eco-terrorist. Although he is the protagonist, he is overshadowed by the shadow of his daughter Sierra's story - the tree-sitter. There are some hilarious bits (although they don't appear even a bit hilarious to novel's characters) like when Ty escapes from the hospital naked from the waist down or when the last lion devours the chief animal patron. As you can see, Boyle's humor is a bit dark, but it's humor nonetheless. Although I enjoyed the novel, I am much fonder of Boyle's short stories. For some reason, his novels never seem to pack the same punch that his short stories do. Maybe it's because we don't sympathize with any of the characters. It's a bit bleak in fact. Thus, I recommend this to diehard fans, but for new Boyle converts, start with a short story collection like Without a Hero.
Rating:
Summary: One of his best if most depressing
Review: It seems to me that this is fast becoming Boyle's most misunderstood novel. People who think this is some sort of environmental screed are bound to be disappointed. So are those who think it's a merry satire a la Road to Wellville. If this has any antecedents in Boyle's past work it's The Tortilla Curtain. Like that book, Friend of the Earth has its humor and social commentary, delivered in Boyle's usual compelling narration and (nearly) flawless prose, but the book is less about the cause than the convictions that drive it. It asks the question: what are you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs? Tierwater, the hapless but sympathetic protagonist here, unfortunately asks that question AFTER he's already committed himself, and the book is about how he deals with the consequences of his actions. As a character study, this should make any reader, whether he or she is pro-environmentalism or not, squirm, not to mention think about his/her own beliefs and just what he or she will do to follow them.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction--not an ecological treatise
Review: Read this book and enjoy it for its characters, its sharp prose, its wittiness, and its engrossing narrative technique. I'd recommend it quite highly. True, it's eye-opening to read about the grim possibilities of our environmental future, and it forces one to reflect upon the way we're maltreating the earth right now. It also makes one think about how we've let the consequences of such abuse creep into our lives slowly--somehow the concept of bottled water seems perfectly acceptible; no doubt we'll soon be buying bottled air. And though A Friend of the Earth is undoubtedly meant to evoke an awareness of our environmental abuse and of how little we've done to correct it, it's important to think of 2025 as the setting--not the theme. And arguing the scientific/meteorolical accuracy of such circumstances is a bit silly. Why would the author of The Road to Wellville and Water Music suddenly decide to write sociological treatises? This book is as much an ecological treatise as the former are historical textbooks. As with most good novels, it's about characters and their relationships with each other and nature in the context of the setting. Tierwater is complex and tragically flawed. It's hard to empathize with his actions--it's easy to see their futility. The statement that "A friend of the earth must be an enemy of the people" is one with which Tierwater struggles. This is not a moralistic story telling us to stop abusing the earth. For instance, many have compared the novel to books by Kurt Vonnegut--I'd agree that there's a similarity of in the way they extrapolate a current trends, environmental abuses, and technological advances and exaggerate them over time (Think Player Piano and Cat's Cradle, for instance). But also think Slaughterhouse five, as A Friend of the Earth is as much an anti-ecological novel as the former is an anti-war novel. Remember how, in his introduction, Vonnegut says that writing an anti-war novel is like writing an anti-glacier novel. It's futile. Come to think of it, another comparison with Slaughterhouse is in the non-linear mode of the narrative. Billy Pilgrim was "unstuck in time"; Tierwater (and some other 3rd person narrator--likely April Wind) flits between the crucial moments of his life. He doesn't seem to get as much consolation from it, however. The one problem I have is Boyle's style with regard to dialog. To put it simply, there's not enough of it. More specifically, statements are often interrupted by long passages of narrative, as much as a couple of paragraphs long, and then continued later. It's very easy to lose track of what the characters are responding to.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction--not an ecological treatise
Review: Read this book and enjoy it for its characters, its sharp prose, its wittiness, and its engrossing narrative technique. I'd recommend it quite highly. True, it's eye-opening to read about the grim possibilities of our environmental future, and it forces one to reflect upon the way we're maltreating the earth right now. It also makes one think about how we've let the consequences of such abuse creep into our lives slowly--somehow the concept of bottled water seems perfectly acceptible; no doubt we'll soon be buying bottled air. And though A Friend of the Earth is undoubtedly meant to evoke an awareness of our environmental abuse and of how little we've done to correct it, it's important to think of 2025 as the setting--not the theme. And arguing the scientific/meteorolical accuracy of such circumstances is a bit silly. Why would the author of The Road to Wellville and Water Music suddenly decide to write sociological treatises? This book is as much an ecological treatise as the former are historical textbooks. As with most good novels, it's about characters and their relationships with each other and nature in the context of the setting. Tierwater is complex and tragically flawed. It's hard to empathize with his actions--it's easy to see their futility. The statement that "A friend of the earth must be an enemy of the people" is one with which Tierwater struggles. This is not a moralistic story telling us to stop abusing the earth. For instance, many have compared the novel to books by Kurt Vonnegut--I'd agree that there's a similarity of in the way they extrapolate a current trends, environmental abuses, and technological advances and exaggerate them over time (Think Player Piano and Cat's Cradle, for instance). But also think Slaughterhouse five, as A Friend of the Earth is as much an anti-ecological novel as the former is an anti-war novel. Remember how, in his introduction, Vonnegut says that writing an anti-war novel is like writing an anti-glacier novel. It's futile. Come to think of it, another comparison with Slaughterhouse is in the non-linear mode of the narrative. Billy Pilgrim was "unstuck in time"; Tierwater (and some other 3rd person narrator--likely April Wind) flits between the crucial moments of his life. He doesn't seem to get as much consolation from it, however. The one problem I have is Boyle's style with regard to dialog. To put it simply, there's not enough of it. More specifically, statements are often interrupted by long passages of narrative, as much as a couple of paragraphs long, and then continued later. It's very easy to lose track of what the characters are responding to.
Rating:
Summary: A Look at a Dark Future
Review: Set about 25 years from know, it imagines what its like to live an ecological disaster. It tops the previous Boyles that I've read, many of which seem contrived, although they somehow draw me into the story. This one seems all too real! What fools these mortals be! It taps the emotions the characters (and we) would experience in the situations. A sit tragedy?
Rating:
Summary: My wife doesn't understand why I liked this book!
Review: T. C. Boyle divides the events of this novel into two general streams of thought, one taking place in 1989 to 1991 and the other projected forward to the imagined world of 2025-2026, mainly in California and Oregon. The action alternates between these two streams. There are frequent flashbacks in each of the general time periods. This approach fractures the time line considerably but Boyle is an excellent short-story writer who fills each episode with his views and humor and manages to pull the story together. The principal character Ty Tierwater has his own character but at times speaks with the voice of the author. I was privileged to hear Boyle read from his book one evening and to hear how he approached this story. His rapid-fire and jocular reading put a life into the characters that is possible to miss if you read this book without a sense of humor. You do not have to like the characters or to identify yourself with them. The point is to understand the characters and their struggles and to learn and to have fun doing so. Boyle paints a surreal picture of his characters and scenes and evidently enjoys going "over the top" with his dramatic images. Water is beyond wet and dry is beyond bleak. An example ( on page 225) of the global-warming bleakness of 2026: "This is the final blow, the last nail in the coffin of my useless life on this useless planet, but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't expecting it. Still, it strikes fear in my heart - fear of inanition, an uncertain future, and the inevitable end. I'm lost. I'm hurt. I've got no income and no place to go and my only remaining ambition at this juncture is to be one of the old-old..... and then I'm following my feet across the bleached yard with its browning devil grass and the twisted, gummy clots of flesh that used to be walking catfish scattered round like dark pellets thrown down out of an angry sky. A mutant lizard (two heads, one foot) slithers under a rock to escape my shadow. My throat is dry." Likewise joy, anger, and peace in the forest are projected in the boldest manner until the French classic end.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Eco-Dystopian Fiction with a Distinctive Voice!
Review: T. C. Boyle's A Friend of the Earth addresses that most difficult challenge--how to write about the near-future and the changes that may come to us all while sustaining the reader's belief and interest. In the year 2025, as Boyle imagines it, global warming and pollution have radically transformed the Earth's ecosphere, and the protagonist's past as an environmental activist and "monkeywrencher" is in ironic contrast with the world he now inhabits, where he works to protect a handful of endangered animals in the private zoo of a reclusive pop star. Ty Tierwater is, as one might expect, a protagonist who has lost his energy and passion--an existentialist without much reason to go on. There is always something risky about writing a book which turns on the memories of such a dispirited character, and indeed the flashback scenes (to the 1980s and 1990s) have far more vitality than the sections of the book set in 2025. It's a fascinating literary choice, albeit one which takes away from the book's momentum and appeal. Those who love Boyle's characteristic humor will also be disappointed, but, as one friend remarked "there are some things that just aren't funny." At the end of the day, though, A Friend of the Earth is a truly thoughtful book and a work of great integrity.
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