When I lived in Arizona in the late 1980s there was an environmental group called Earth First! that was creating a lot of excitement on campus. Edward Abbey was teaching at the University of Arizona and everyone was reading his book called The Monkey Wrench Gang. Earth First! advocated using some of the tactics that Abbey described in his book. All was fun and good until the FBI busted down Dave Foreman's (the most vocal leader of Earth First!)door in the middle of the night, with black helicopters circling, and hauled him away. The next few days there was many of us trying to remember who we knew that was part of the movement and determine our particular degree of separation as more and more people were arrested. The FBI effectively scared the crap out of anyone involved in the environmental movement in the Southwest. Earth First logoImagine my pleasant surprise when the group that Ty Tierwater, our hero, was associated with is Earth Forever! Okay, obviously Boyle decided to change the name and move the base of operation to California, but he can't fool me. Ty is the most radical of the Earth Forever! members he sees the political struggle over the Earth as a war and that destructive Monkey Wrenching tactics is the only way to force the large lumber companies to back off. We first meet Ty in 2025 and all the most dire predictions for the Earth have come true. The places that are dry have become more barren and the places that were traditional wet zones have become flood zones. All of his activism accomplished nothing. Tierwater is now 75 years old and taking care of a small menagerie of exotic animals for a pop star. After several stints in jail for illegal activity this is about the only job a famous felon can find. He sums up his life through the workings of his bowels."My guts are rumbling: gas, that's what it is. If I lie absolutely still, it'll work through all the anfractuous turns and twists down there and find its inevitable way to the point of release. And what am I thinking? That's methane gas, a natural pollutant, same as you get from landfills, feedlots and termite mounds, and it persists in the atmosphere for ten years, one more fart's worth of global warming. I'm a mess and I know it. Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt, enviroeco-capitalistico guilt. I can't even expel gas in peace. Of course, guilt itself is a luxury. In prison we didn't concern ourselves overmuch about environmental degradation or the rights of nature or anything else, for that matter. They penned us up like animals, and we shat and pissed and jerked off and blew hurricanes out our rectums, and if the world collapsed as a result, all the better, at least we'd be out." Dave ForemanThe book flips back and forth between 1989-91 and 2025-26. We see the decisions that Ty makes trying to make a difference and the influence of his actions on the development of his daughter. Despite numerous incarcerations Ty is never rehabilitated. "Every prisoner told himself-I'll never do it again but Tierwater didn't believe it. Not for a minute. He knew now, with every yearning, hating , bitter and terminally bored fiber of his being, why prison didn't reform anybody. Penitentiary. What a joke. The only thing you were penitent for was getting caught. And the more time you did, the more you wanted to strike back at the sons of bitches and make them wince, make them hurt the way you did. That was rehabilitation for you." Edward Abbey once tried to pick up my girlfriend at a book signing with ME standing RIGHT THERE. Horny bastard.I wasn't sure how I felt about Ty Tierwater for most of the book, but as the novel progressed I had developed a grudging respect for him. He really did care, maybe too much to think clearly, but he was truly committed to saving the planet. Even as an old man, we still find him trying to do what he can to preserve a tiny part of the diversity of the planet. By the end of the novel he has found some solitude. "I've entered a new world. Or an old one, a world that exists only in the snapping tangle of neurons in my poor ratcheting brain...For the first time in a long time I feel something approaching optimism, or at least a decline in the gradient of pessimism." By 2026 Ty finds himself ultimately more concerned about finding peace for himself knowing the battle for the planet has been lost, yet hopeful, that a new planet will emerge with new creatures and maybe a better primary caretaker. I most recently talked with Boyle at a signing in Wichita. I'm still mad at myself that I forgot to ask him about taking classes under Cheever.It has been a long time since I've read T. C. Boyle and it won't be as long before I read the next Boyle. He is a smart, crafty writer with brimming intelligence on every page.
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.
What do You think about A Friend Of The Earth (2001)?
In the year 2025 temperatures in California are well over 100 degrees every day, winds are so strong they blow down buildings and trees, there is extreme flooding, species are rapidly disappearing from the earth, houses are gobbling up what used to be countryside. Despite Ty's efforts at eco terrorism in the late 1980s, this is the condition of the earth in 2025. This book first came out in the year 2000. I would like to think that we have made some progress since then, but are we doing enough? Is there hope, or is T.C. Boyle's portrayal of 2025 accurate?
—Marty
I deeply enjoyed this novel of the end of the world. Written almost 20 years ago, it is describing disastrous environmental changes that are already underway. There are the “business-as-usual” types, the “responsible” conservationists and the mad ecoterrorists like our hero. There's the rock star who only wants to save from extinction unlovable species. There are random disasters as well as foreseeable ones. Life goes on, as it were. And the famous last words of an ancient insurance cop to our hero — “what did you accomplish?” The answer, “not a damn thing” may say it all. TC Boyle is a great writer.
—Mikee
T. C. Boyle's novel gave a rather dim view of the environmental movement and the Earth"s future. Set in 2025, the biosphere has collapsed, and weather patterns are horrific, altering between devasting floods and searing heat. The story swings back and forth between the late 1980's/ 1990's and 2025. Tierwater currently works for an aging ex rock star with lots of money, and a desire to save some of the remaining, and perhaps less endearing species left on the planet. Tierwater, his wife Andrea and daughter Sierra belonged to a rather extremist environmental organization "Earth Forever." Know that I am an environmentalist myself, so my review is skewed based on my own morals and belief in the cause. I personally found Tierwater's tactics of property destruction and forest burning (Really??? ) appalling for an environmentalist! And Andrea"s administrative salary of $80,000 a year? How much advertising for the cause could that money have bought? Tierwater goes to jail for his actions and when set free, Andrea picks him up in a fancy sports car?? What about a hybrid? No one even mentioms alternative green energy! Perhaps Boyle is trying to convey that mankind is not serious enough, or perhaps too greedy and hotheaded, to effectively save the planet. The character with the most sincerity was the daughter Sierra, who became a vegan and lived 3 years in a tree. However in the end, it was all for naught, and Sierra's life ended tragically. What I am trying to say is I was expexting tbe novel to offer more hope, or at least portray environmental activists heroically. I did not find the story nor the characters satisfying.
—Caroline
