A Friend of the Earth

The Cli-Fi novel I have been reading is A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle. Unfortunately, this novel did not arrive in the timely fashion that I thought it would so I have not had the opportunity to read as much of it as I would like. However, what I have read has been extremely interesting, yet also confusing. From what I have read, it appears that the novel takes place in the future, where the effects of climate change have dramatically hurt the Earth, and also the human race. The number of animals that currently live on Earth have decreased significantly due to the extreme weather patterns created by climate change. This all seems to make a decent amount of sense, but there is a twist.

          Things start to get confusing when a man who works as a caretaker to animals that are still alive on Earth (In protected places, sort of like a mini zoo) has flashbacks to a time when climate change could have been solved. It is revealed that he was once a radical activist about climate change who participated in violent and dramatic crimes to raise awareness of the damages being done to the planet. My mind immediately jumped to the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which a fellow student read earlier in the semester. The violent crimes committed in both novels are shocking to most readers and could result in the death or serious injury of other people.

          So far the book has been very exciting and a great read! I cannot wait to see what else happens throughout this novel. Again, the only really difficult concept to grasp is that the main character has flashbacks and it is not always very clear when those take place. The pace of the novel is decently fast, and can keep any reader interested. Also, the syntax of the novel is easy to understand (minus the flashback parts) and provides the right amount of details. Anyways, I am very excited to read more, and I truly have enjoyed the novel up to this point.