When the Killing's Done

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Fiction

Decanted sunshine, thickening gloom

WHEN THE KILLING'S DONE

By T. C. Boyle

384 pp. Viking

Reviewed by Sarah Morgan

To be a friend of the earth you have to be an enemy of the people.

--T. C. Boyle

A master at conjoining disparate personalities in his writing, T.C. Boyle, author of 12 previous novels and numerous short stories, uses his protagonists to explore man's hubris and its ultimate repercussions. In his most recent book, When the Killing's Done, eco-conservation squares off against animal rights activism in an ever-escalating battle with dire consequences for all.

The characters in all his novels struggle within self-imposed limits yearning to redraw the lines to a more flexible world, and the protagonists of When the Killing's Done are no exception. The book is set in the Channel Islands, a Galapagos-like string of rocky outcroppings off the Santa Barbara coast of Southern California. One of the main characters, Dr. Alma Boyd Takesue, is a young information official for the National Park Department in charge of ridding the islands of invasive, non-native species, such as rats and feral pigs, in order to preserve a dwindling population of indigenous foxes and birds. Her arch rivals are a dreadlocked electronics store owner named Dave Lajoy and his singer girlfriend, Anise Reed. Dave is opposed to any killing. He is not simply an idealist but more than willing to intercede with cunning and force. Dave and Alma hate each other. They also dated. Once.

Boyle is known for addressing controversial issues head on. In previous books he has twisted and wrung such polarizing topics as immigration, migrant labor, racism, and wealth distribution until political correctness drips with irony. East Is East (1990) concerns an ostracized half-breed Japanese sailor who jumps ship off the coast of Georgia looking for the American tolerance he believes will save him. What ensues is a black farce rampant with racial stereotypes, betrayal, and selfishness. Tortilla Curtain (1995) takes place in a posh canyon of L.A. Through a freak accident, gated-community liberals are forced into close contact with a Mexican couple who live in a shack in that same canyon. Through their interaction Boyle creates a tragicomedy of misunderstandings. Some readers feel Boyle is too cynical because his protagonists, while wanting to be better people, often can't quite pull it off. But, as George Bernard Shaw once noted, “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.”

In When the Killing's Done, Boyle paints a picture of righteous environmentalists and intolerant animal rights activists with a sardonic brush. Both Dave and Alma have their share of personal baggage. She is obsessed not only with her job but with her vegetarianism, her family, and her future. Dave is a hyperactive, BMW-driving misanthrope. Things get interesting when both Alma and Dave run into personal conflicts with their own value system. For Dave it's his lawn and who or what is destroying it, and for Alma it is about population growth. Hers. Boyle delves deeply into the psyche of his protagonists and uses flashbacks into the maternal lines of the main characters to deepen the story. Both Anise Reed's and Alma's grandmothers had intimate knowledge of the backdrop for the book; Alma's grandmother nearly died in the channel, and Anise was raised on a sheep ranch on one of the islands that Boyle uses to demonstrate the conflicts between man and his environment, a recurring theme in his writing.

Boyle is one of the greats among modern American novelists, and his writing in this book is exquisite. The lens through which he sees and understands human nature makes his characters jump right off the page, and his descriptions of nature are superb, as in this section where Dave is driving back to town with his girlfriend, Anise, after an afternoon of wine tasting:

They had a late lunch--supper, really--outdoors at a little café in the studiously quaint town of Santa Ynez, then drove back up 154 and through the San Marcos Pass in the decanted sunshine of the dying afternoon and wound their way down to Santa Barbara with the islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel laid out before them as if on a tray, the perspective shifting and shifting again as they wound their way through the switchbacks and watched the night begin to gather in a gray tumble of thickening gloom up ahead of them while the islands rode off to the west in red streamers of illumination.

This is one of Boyle's best books. He rummages through the emotions and motivations of his characters, making it nearly impossible for the reader to take sides. Anyone who has spent time in Southern California will recognize the protagonists as real. Anyone who hasn't will be introduced to Southern California culture in all its splendor.

And that first chapter? Stand by for the ride of your life as Dr. Alma's grandmother, caught in gale-force winds off the islands, clings to life aboard the little fishing boat, Beverley B. Philosopher, essayist, and poet George Santayana once noted that “everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.” T. C. Boyle writes to this mantra, and the final chapters could not have ended any other way.