Boyle's 'Friend' dazzles with an eco-love story
Mark Luce
Atlanta Journal-Constitution 9/17/00

T.C. Boyle's best books have been about the past, whether the turn-of-the-20th-century cornflake loving exercise idiosyncrasies of John Harvey Kellogg in "The Road to Wellville" or the heartbreaking mental imprisonment of Stanley McCormick in "Riven Rock." But in his strong new novel, "A Friend of the Earth," Boyle sets his eyes on the future, using his trademark skills - characterization and offbeat humor - to tell a fascinating story of environmental degradation and rekindled love.

At the center of Boyle's future-rama sits Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater, who lives in Santa Ynez, Calif., in 2025, caring for an aging pop star's collection of ragtag animals as the earth, now a steam bath, shakes off species with nonchalance. Old Tierwater is 75, a grizzled veteran of the environmental battles of the late 1980s and early '90s.

Back then, Ty was jolted from his widowed, suburban malaise by one Andrea Knowles Cotton, a beauty with a passion for trees and creatures. Andrea enlists Ty and his young daughter, Sierra, to help fight the good fight by blocking timber companies, disabling bulldozers and sabotaging roads. Ty, who is wound tight, takes to this monkey-wrenching with the zeal of a new convert, but, like many of Boyle's wonderfully zany protagonists, he can't see the forest for the trees. By turns he blows up a bulldozer, sets thousands of acres of forest ablaze, tries to use an arc welder to fell behemoth power poles and sets himself in concrete to stop a logging operation.

As Ty and pals stand helplessly in the cement, Boyle writes, "He can remember sitting there frying like somebody's meal with a face, no ozone layer left to protect them from the sun, no water, no hat, and no shade and all the trees of the world under the ax, while he worked out the conundrum in his head: if a protest falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it; does it make a sound?"

But now it's 2025 and Ty is tired. He cares for a few remaining animals - lions and hyenas and foxes, oh, my! - and battles driving rainstorms, gale force winds and brutal heat. And, after 20-some-odd years, Andrea pops back into his quiet life. High jinks, danger and even a little love ensue in this barren world, as Ty tries to get that crusty bitterness under control.
Reading "A Friend of the Earth," one has to ask why Boyle doesn't have a broader fan base. He won't dazzle you with narrative invention or floor you with a vision, a la Don DeLillo. But he takes big risks, he does his research, he takes time with his books, and he manages to be tremendously, wickedly funny while crafting prose that's easy on the ears.

Perhaps in today's buzz-filled publishing world it's not enough to be an accomplished writer with eight novels and five collections of stories over a span of 20 years; perhaps you need a gimmick, a cause - or more self-absorption. Boyle's books may not make for sexy copy, but the guy is an original - clever, quirky and comical - and as "A Friend of the Earth" demonstrates, he is very good.