My father first read a short story by T.C.Boyle called "Sorry, Fugu", it got me hooked automatically because it was writing about something that occurs, restaurant critics and the food and chefs they critique, but half of the population is not aware of the kind of tension it entails. Having a background in the restaurant business it sparked my intrest and attention imediately.I soon stole my father's copy of the collected short stories and began reading them. My father and I discuss them. "If the River was Whiskey" -also a seperate book- was the most touching story I've read so far. the exerpts of short stories i included where the two I mentioned as well as "Not a Leg to Stand on."
A Friend of the Earth is T.C.Boyle's eighth novel, published by Viking in September of 2000. It deals with environmental themes and is set in two periods, the late eighties and nineties of the last century, and in the years 2025-2026 of the current one. The protagonist is a former eco-warrior by the name of Tyrone Tierwater, who was a member of the radical environmental group Earth Forever! at one time, and, as the book opens, is earning his living managing a menagerie of endangered creatures for a retired pop star. My father read parts of this book during a road trip. It was hilarious!