A Friend of the Earth Author:T. C. Boyle Funny and touching, antic and affecting . . . while Boyle's humor is as black as ever, he demonstrates that satire can coexist with psychological realism, comedy with compassion." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) — In the tradition of The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle blends idealism and satire in a story that addresses the uni... more »versal questions of human love and the survival of the species. In the year 2025 global warming is a reality, the biosphere has collapsed, and 75-year-old environmentalist Ty Tierwater is eking out a living as care-taker of a pop star's private zoo when his second ex-wife re-enters his life. .
. . Both gritty and surreal, A Friend of the Earth represents a high-water mark in Boyle's career-his deep streak of social concern is effortlessly blended here with genuine compassion for his characters and the spirit of sheer exhilarating playfulness readers have come to expect from his work.« less
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T.C. Boyle wrote A Friend of the Earth, an enronmentally-focused novel about a man caught up in the "Save the World" campaign with an organization that uses terroristic methods to get their message out. Definitely a satire, but kind of depressing.
If all the claims of the newspaper headlines about mass extinction, global warming, and the holes in the ozone are true, then what will our immediate future look like?
In this novels' version, it is pretty bleak, but comically so.
This is one of my favorite books. The characters are flawed and endearing in all the right places. The precautionary narrative is presented with classic Boyle humor which makes the distasteful portrait of future consequences to our current disregard for the natural world quite palatable.
Environmental futuristic horror story/ love? story
Fans of Orwell or huxley would enjoy maybe... anyone interested in global warming/ eco-causes.... Earth First-ers