Boyle, T. C. A Friend of the Earth.

A Friend of the Earth  takes place in the year 2025 where 75-year old environmentalist Ty Tierwater is managing a pop star’s private zoo that attempts to save unpopular species on the brink of extinction. Although major part of the narrative is focused on the problem of deforestation and the protagonist’s past as ecoterrorist, the way in which the novel positions the captive animal in a larger context of climate change provides an interesting perspective on the future fate of animals and zoos.

Secondary readings: 

• Mayer, Silvia. 2007. “American Environmentalism and Encounters with the Abject: T. Coraghessan Boyle’s A Friend of the Earth.” In The Abject of Desire: The Aestheticization of the Unaesthetic in Contemporary Literature and Culture, edited by Konstanze Kutzbach and Monika Mueller, 221 – 235. New York: Rodopi.

Boyle, T. C. 2000. A Friend of the Earth. New York: Viking-Penguin.