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When the Killing's Done

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 2,083 ratings · 519 reviews

From the bestselling author of The Women comes an action- packed adventure about endangered animals and those who protect them.

Principally set on the wild and sparsely inhabited Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, T.C. Boyle's powerful new novel combines pulse-pounding adventure with a socially conscious, richly humane tale regarding the dominion we attempt t...more

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published February 22nd 2011 by Viking Adult (first published January 1st 2011)

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Oct 05, 2011 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I jumped this book ahead of all my other library books when it came in, but was it worth it? Written in classic Boyle style (fans of his will know what I mean), it is filled with frenetic, run-on inner monolgoues, characters who rarely exhibit kindness to themselves or others, and all the environmentalists are kind of stupid. Also everyone drinks a lot, even the pregnant chic. No one writes drunk as well as T.C. Boyle.

One of the main themes usually running through his work is that nature is in...more I jumped this book ahead of all my other library books when it came in, but was it worth it? Written in classic Boyle style (fans of his will know what I mean), it is filled with frenetic, run-on inner monolgoues, characters who rarely exhibit kindness to themselves or others, and all the environmentalists are kind of stupid. Also everyone drinks a lot, even the pregnant chic. No one writes drunk as well as T.C. Boyle.

One of the main themes usually running through his work is that nature is in trouble, we are the ones f*cking it up, and the people who try to help out are pretty dimwitted, in it for their own ends, and are mainly screwing the animals over with their efforts. Case in point - crazy activist Dave is somehow okay with trapping raccoons to keep them from tearing up his lawn and then releasing them in a closed island ecosystem like it's some episode of Born Free. Really? You don't think that maybe the raccoons would prefer not to be trapped, traumatized, and then left in some weird place they've never been before?

There is an interseting environmental interplay between the two sides, biologist Alma Boyd Takesue (her name is easy to remember because she's referred to as Alma Boyd Takesue several times in the book), who wants to kill the invasive rats on the island and Dave LaJoy, who does not. There's a section from Alma's perspective about how the rats are killing the foxes and it's all man's fault because they rode over on ships and you start thinking, "Rats! They're awful! Why shouldn't they be exterminated?" and then Dave starts talking and it’s all about rats being perfect little creatures & what right do we have anyway and that makes you think, “Poor little guys.” So there are clearly no easy answers about dealing with invasive species, which is a problem you didn’t even know you had to worry about all that much.

My issue with this book is that everything happens so fast – there is going to be a big showdown between LaJoy & Takesue over the rats and then all of a sudden four months have passed & the rats are all dead & it’s on to exterminating pigs. Someone’s pregnant, then she’s almost due, then she has a nine-week old. I could’ve done without the many flashbacks to character’s pasts and famous boats sinking (a diversion that could've been interesting but isn't fleshed out enough) just to get more info on what’s happening to everybody in real time. Also, Tim is a jerk.(less)

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Jan 04, 2013 Caris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, environmental

My recent tangle with mice and subsequent precarious dancing on that fine line between sanitary home and genuine rodentry has got me all introspective about invasive species.

Rodents, in particular, are funny. In pet stores, they’re pretty cute, but when they scurry across your kitchen counters and eat holes in the plastic bag surrounding your loaf of sandwich bread, they become some kind of otherworldly menace bent on spreading disease and filth. Nevermind that the pet store mouse and the common...more My recent tangle with mice and subsequent precarious dancing on that fine line between sanitary home and genuine rodentry has got me all introspective about invasive species.

Rodents, in particular, are funny. In pet stores, they’re pretty cute, but when they scurry across your kitchen counters and eat holes in the plastic bag surrounding your loaf of sandwich bread, they become some kind of otherworldly menace bent on spreading disease and filth. Nevermind that the pet store mouse and the common house mouse are the same creature.

When I learned of our possible infestation, I felt helpless. Unlike other folks, I don’t have a visceral dislike of the creatures. In fact, if they didn’t have that nasty habit of shitting all over everything, I’d probably let them stay. But I’m in the minority there. During my online search for nonlethal mouse traps, I discovered that the majority of people would rather have the furry little brutes dead. I don’t think I found one live capture trap that didn’t include instructions for making it lethal. It’s interesting.

What is it about rodents that makes them so unsympathetic? Like puppies, they are cute. Like cats, they care for their young. Like me, they didn’t choose to be born. They’ve committed no crime greater than existence, which everyone reading this is guilty of.

When the Killing’s Done brought this issue to light in a unique way. In the story, we meet two environmentalists. One is a PETA type, and the other is a biological conservationist; one thinks that no animals should ever be killed, and the other thinks that in order to save the majority, sometimes you have to break some fucking eggs. They come to loggerheads over an island that is infested with invasive rats. Should they stay or should they go?

I don’t know that it’s possible for a writer to make similar (yet highly polarized) ideals more convoluted, contradictory, and insightful than Boyle has with this novel. Throughout the text, I found myself on the side of the rat-killing scientist. Her logic made more sense to me. The PETA guy was all heart, with just the slightest amount of input from his brain. By the end, though, I had no idea what was right. All the best intentions, it seems, can (and likely have) been foiled by humankind’s sticky little fingerprints all over the face of this planet.

Rodents thrive because of us. It is our fault. Yet, rather than looking to that root cause, we seek to control them. Instead of poisoning ourselves, we poison our symptoms. We have a distinctly symbiotic relationship with mice and rats and the more effective way to treat for them would be to create human-sized traps for us to stick our own necks into.

But, then again, it is not our fault we’re here. It’s almost like there’s no clear answer, isn’t it? (less)

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Oct 24, 2011 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love TC Boyle, and he writes enough that I can pick from among his novels based on the appeal of their subject matter. This was fascinating, a book about the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, Anacapa and Santa Cruz. They've always been just a couple of big rocks to me-- but not after reading this book. Forever after, they'll be the location of this novel, which charts the ideological battle for possession of these bioscapes--on the one side, science and ecology represented by Alm...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Will Byrnes rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Channel Islands off the California coast, near Ventura, are home to many species of flora and fauna that are either rare or nonexistent elsewhere. Serial invasion by intent or accident having placed many of these species at risk of extinction, the National Park Service wants to restore natural biota to the islands. In order to accomplish this goal, it will be necessary to remove the exotics. In this case that means rats and wild pigs. So what is an ecologist to do? It may be a laudable goal...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Sam Quixote rated it 5 of 5 stars

The novel is about the struggle of man and his environment - of one day (19th century) introducing non-native animals to an environment and totally obliterating species that didn't know how to cope, and years later (21st century) trying to undo the damage this introduction did by killing the non-native creatures and re-introducing the native animals that weren't wiped out.

This is the main story of the book with the real life events of the extermination of rats from Anacapa island and afterwards...more The novel is about the struggle of man and his environment - of one day (19th century) introducing non-native animals to an environment and totally obliterating species that didn't know how to cope, and years later (21st century) trying to undo the damage this introduction did by killing the non-native creatures and re-introducing the native animals that weren't wiped out.

This is the main story of the book with the real life events of the extermination of rats from Anacapa island and afterwards the extermination of pigs from Santa Cruz island (both islands are off the coast of California). Alma Boyd Takesue is the environmental scientist who takes on this challenge and is our heroine, while Dave LaJoy is the antagonist, a self proclaimed eco-warrior attempting to stop and sabotage any attempts at wiping out any animals no matter what. To this end he pickets Takesue's campaign to wipe out the rats and when that fails, he does everything he can, going further than before, to stop the extermination of the pigs.

I've been a huge fan of T C Boyle's writing for years now and strongly recommend his short story collections After the Plague, Tooth and Claw, and last year's Wild Child, as incredible examples of the short story medium and Boyle's own mastery of writing. That said, I've never been able to finish one of his novels before "When the Killing's Done". Not sure why that is but one reason I'm sure of that made me finish this book was the story and the writing.

Boyle does a marvellous job of pacing an interesting story and turning it into a thriller. The pages fly by with events unfolding at a furious pace, the spaces between chapters sometimes signalling a shift of several years and Boyle often jumps backwards and forwards in time to give the reader background to a situation, sometimes going back to the 19th century then the 20th, then the present day. The impression is of a whizz-bang tour of the history of the region and coupled with Boyle's indeible prose makes for a compelling read.

The characters of Alma Takesue and Dave LaJoy are also fascinating. It's clear who the reader is supposed to side with and who Boyle himself favours but we nonetheless get a vivid portrait of two obsessive individuals who feel they are doing the right thing. Alma, for all her surety as a scientist and rigid world view, is challenged by events in the book that happen in her personal life and we see her grow realistically as a character. Dave is a more fascinating character just because he's so extreme in defending animals that it blinds him to human beings and drives him to do ridiculous and dangerous things. As the reader spends more time with him we get to see the various sides of his character and the contradictions of his life, work, and goals.

This is the best novel of 2011 so far. An original novel featuring events and themes relevant to us today filled with characters and a level of writing that showcases a master writer at the top of his game. Utterly engrossing, memorable, and hugely enjoyable, I loved this book and am more convinced than ever at T C Boyle's abilities, it's a shame he's not as popular in the UK as he is stateside. If you're a fiction fan looking for an exciting, contemporary read, "When the Killing's Done" is for you. (less)

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May 26, 2011 David Granger rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been reading Boyle since he was the more formal T. Coraghessan Boyle, since Road to Wellville and other earlier works. For me, When the Killing's Done is his best work in quite some time.

Some might term it an environmental novel, because both the protagonist, Alma Boyd Takesue, and the antagonist, Dave Lajoy, are, in fact, environmentalists. But they find themselves at odds when the National Park Service, for whom Alma works, plans to kill off the rats on Anacapa, one of the Channel Islands...more I've been reading Boyle since he was the more formal T. Coraghessan Boyle, since Road to Wellville and other earlier works. For me, When the Killing's Done is his best work in quite some time.

Some might term it an environmental novel, because both the protagonist, Alma Boyd Takesue, and the antagonist, Dave Lajoy, are, in fact, environmentalists. But they find themselves at odds when the National Park Service, for whom Alma works, plans to kill off the rats on Anacapa, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California, and later, too, when the NPS is killing the wild boars off of Santa Cruz, another of the Channel Islands.

The story covers four generations of Alma's family and two generations of the family of Lajoy's girlfriend, Anise. Alma's grandmother, Beverly Boyd, was the sole survivor of the wreck of the Beverly B, a cabin cruiser her husband Till bought upon his return from World War II. The wreck occurred as Beverly, Till and Till's brother, Warren, were en route to the Channels to take advantage of an outstanding fishing area. Anise's mom, Rita, has prior exposure to the Channels, too. She was a cook/live-in girlfriend/laborer for one Baxter "Bax" Russell, who ran a huge sheep operation on Santa Cruz until the corporation he raised the sheep for saw that hunting wild boar on the island could be far more profitable than sheep farming.

For his part, Lajoy owns a successful line of high-end electronics stores; unlike with Alma and Anise, the book reveals no real root for his environmentalism. Lajoy is, in fact, a mean character --- rude, judgmental, vengeful and more. And, in this reader's mind, he gets what he deserves, what he's sown.

Early on, Boyle moves from generation to generation and back again with plenty of show-stopping surprises along the way. The book is nothing if not unpredictable and full of twists. Boyle executes those plot twists with his usual command of telling, descriptive prose and the result is a book that I'm sure I'll read again soon enough.

It's recommended. (less)

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Nov 20, 2011 Mirkat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the book that led me to finding Goodreads. I was doing a search on the title and "vegan" because I was surprised (and disappointed, to be honest) that Dave LaJoy, the character who founded and ran the fictional For the Protection of Animals, was not one. The first time this is revealed, he is complaining bitterly about how his eggs are prepared. Later, there is a scene that acknowledges that this presents an inconsistency:

That was the day he gave up meat, cold turkey, and where did that

...more This is the book that led me to finding Goodreads. I was doing a search on the title and "vegan" because I was surprised (and disappointed, to be honest) that Dave LaJoy, the character who founded and ran the fictional For the Protection of Animals, was not one. The first time this is revealed, he is complaining bitterly about how his eggs are prepared. Later, there is a scene that acknowledges that this presents an inconsistency:

That was the day he gave up meat, cold turkey, and where did that expression come from? Of course, he still needed protein, especially since he was lifting at the gym, and so he continued to incorporate eggs and dairy in his diet, though he knew all about the battery hens in the egg-laying factories, how they're fed the remains of the male chicks, which are otherwise useless to the industry, how they're subjected to forced molting (that is, they're periodically denied food for six to ten days and then brought back on diet as a way of forcing ovulation), and how after a year they're played out and sent to slaughter. Anise is on him all the time about it--not to mention his cardiologist--but eggs are his one concession to the system, to cruelty. He means to change. He wants to change. Anise is a vegan and he's moving that way, he is, but it's hard, because through all his bachelor days from his divorce on up to the present, it's been eggs that sustained him.

Later still, we learn that eggs are not his "one concession," as he eats fish. Anise chides him with "If you're going to commit to vegetarianism, you can't go halfway, Dave." So Boyle himself clearly knows the difference. And yet the character Alma Boyd Takesue is identified as a vegetarian, and she turns out to be a pescetarian.

So where am I going with this? It just surprises me that Anise appears to be the one and only vegan in the entire novel. Even the other activists who associate with Dave LaJoy seem to be on the dairy, eggs, and fish train. I understand that Boyle was making a statement about hypocrisy, but must they all be hypocrites? In my experience, you will find more vegans than non-vegans represented in such groups. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I will reveal that I am a vegan, so this makes me more sensitive about such issues.)

Boyle is one of my favorite authors, and I still liked this novel enough to give it three stars (but he is usually a four/five-star author for me). Although he often claims not to write polemics, but rather throw out situations and allow the readers to make up their minds, it seemed clear to me that his sympathies lie with Alma Boyd Takesue, the biologist with the National Park Service whose plans to eradicate non-indigenous species in the islands off the coast of California pit her against Dave LaJoy. She is the rational one whose motives are based on science, and he is the irrational extremist whose methods only underscore his afore-mentioned hypocrisy. In certain respects, this novel will remind readers of The Tortilla Curtain and, especially, A Friend of the Earth. The latter got into the realm of eco-terrorism, with a main character every bit as extreme as Dave LaJoy. (I wonder if Boyle is aware that there are vegans who believe in non-violent vegan education. He needs to read some Gary Francione!)(less)

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Jan 15, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not sure how to rate this book. First TC Boyle book I've read and I'm not sure if he's for me. I'll need to try another of his to know for sure. Also, I listened to this one and the readers voice bugged me. Unfair but true and that colored it for me.

I liked the story, the characters, the setting and the back stories through generations, but it was too much. Too much context and detail that I felt bogged down at times and just wanted to get through it. That happened less as the book progressed b...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Mariann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed seeing one of my favorite writers portray these 2 different characters. Alma Boyd Takesue, a Park Service staff person in charge of irradicating invasive species--of animals--which means killing them. She was very sympathetic and kind, a person I could see myself being friends with. On the other hand, Dave LaJoy, Alma's foil, was a mean, petty, unkind and inscrupulous person. He was an activist for a PETA-like organization, but his only positive traits were being animal-lover and a veg...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-june-2011

Like the characters in the book, reviewers of When the Killing’s Done shared a passion that also divided them. All critics expressed their admiration for T. C. Boyle and his ability to find original drama in historical and contemporary settings. But they disagreed about whether he meets his usual standards here. Some critics felt that the complexity of Takesue, LaJoy, and other characters give this novel the moral ambiguity that they enjoyed in books like Tortilla Curtain. Others felt that the c...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Geoffrey Benn rated it 4 of 5 stars

“When the Killing’s Done” tells the story of the conflict between Alma Takesue, a park service employee, and Dave LaJoy, a businessman-environmentalist. Alma is overseeing the eradication of invasive animal species on the Channel Islands, off the coast of California, which Dave opposes vehemently. A number of the characters have strong family history links to the Islands, including Alma (her pregnant grandmother was shipwrecked on the islands) and Anise, Dave’s girlfriend (who spent part of her...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked learning how the National Park Service and other nature conservation groups try to restore public land to their natural habitat. Made me want to visit the Channel Islands - just up the coast from me in San Diego. And it's been a long time since I have detested a villain as much as I did Dave LaJoy. Yet I think that in developing other characters the author did more telling about the characters than showing. There seemed to be something missing in Tim, the boyfriend, and in Anise, the vil...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Sheli Ellsworth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-reviews

T.C . Boyle breaks all the rules. He indulges his readers with a smorgasbord of verbiage—sometimes brilliant and other times nonsensical and masturbatory. His unique torque on adjectives is probably illegal in several red states. He oscillates writing styles, points of view, and protagonists; the book almost reads like a trilogy because of the distinctly different approaches. And somehow, Boyle makes it work.

Much of the environmental story takes place off the California coast on the Channel Isla...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a great read. Admittedly parts of it got my anger up enough that I switched to the radio (not a good idea to drive while angry ;->).
The book is set in Santa Barbara and the nearby Channel Islands. One of the key characters is Alma Boyd Takesue, a National Parks Service biologist who is one of the key people working to restore the ecosystems of the Islands. Her chief opponent is Dave LaJoy, a local businessman who has formed a lobby group called FPA (For the Protection of Animals) and...more

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May 28, 2012 Barry Willdorf rated it 3 of 5 stars

WHEN THE KILLING IS DONE is a captivating book, and well written. T.C. Boyle has an uncanny knack for presenting a story that seems entirely factual. He gets you to say “That guy’s really done his research. He knows what he is talking about.” Boyle had me believing, abandoning my innate skepticism. Then he went a bridge too far and wrote some stuff that happens to be up my professional alley.

Here's the set-up:
Dave is charged with a crime along with Wilson. Wilson cops a plea and gets a very lig...more

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May 26, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

TC Boyle often chooses topics that are controversial and socially relevant. This is no exception. This story focuses on two opposing groups- both seeking THEIR greater good- animal rights versus what is best for the natural environment/ecosystem. Woven throughout both sides are personal flaws in their discordant thinking- and as a result, it would be difficult to accuse Boyle of pushing his own agenda. Alma is a biologist, seeking to rid a CA island of animals that do not belong there- that made...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Annett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 14, 2012 Anne Broyles rated it 3 of 5 stars

When we lived in California, we were fortunate enough to go out to the Channel Islands numerous times. Sometimes called “America’s Galapagos,” these islands are populated with creatures that have evolved to live in their particular environment. Tiny foxes the size of house cats, birds whose size differs from island to island, pinnipeds and cetaceans galore. I have hiked these islands, camped on some of them, boated around them. So I was drawn to T.C. Boyle’s book, which explores ideas of restora...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Favorite TC Boyle Novel.

Recommend this book for anyone who has been on a boat, tasted salt water up the nose or heard of Glendale.

Thrilling, comical, and biologically relevant adventure taking place off the coast of Santa Barbara's channel islands.

The first maritime disaster in the post WW2 era introduces the Boyd women: Beverly( 2 months pregnant) as she survives a shipwreck off Anacapa which captivates you to keep the pages turning. Then, it drops you into 21st century, develops characters of...more Favorite TC Boyle Novel.

Recommend this book for anyone who has been on a boat, tasted salt water up the nose or heard of Glendale.

Thrilling, comical, and biologically relevant adventure taking place off the coast of Santa Barbara's channel islands.

The first maritime disaster in the post WW2 era introduces the Boyd women: Beverly( 2 months pregnant) as she survives a shipwreck off Anacapa which captivates you to keep the pages turning. Then, it drops you into 21st century, develops characters of present day: Educated Alma v Narcissist LaJoy. Each dedicated to their cause. One systematically , the other pathologically.
Other characters emerge: beautiful, folk singing Anisse and her unusual childhood ,hating meat along the way. Lighthearted , manchild , Tim: dedicated to his science and not interested in procreation.
Eventually we are introduced to Alma's mom,, Katherine and we understand her aversion to the ocean and her propensity for Vodka.
Throughout the book we're reminded continuously of animal behavior: on insular islands, in kelp beds, reefs, muddy cliffs, on dining cum kitchen tables, freeways,parking lots, Diners, Marinas. So, we all get a good look at ourselves and maybe check ourselves.

It took about 2 days of my life to get through this because I did have to sleep, eat ( didn't consume any meat)and take kids to practice . Luckily , I was sick with a cold so I could excuse myself from other social obligations.

No spoiler here but some of the scenes were so classic: LaJoy ordering wine; Alma mortified by hitting the squirrel (, until the 12year old on his skateboard shows up); the young couple on The Anubis and lastly the scene in the separation zone, involving Wilson and the snake

I heard of Boyle after his appearance on Bill Maher last year while promoting this book. Next day went to B&N but it wasn't out yet. So I did get a book of his Short Stories and Tortilla Curtain. Finished both then proceeded to knock off all of his novels over last year and recently completed East is East and Water Music saving this one for last .

Boyle's take home message: be courteous and don't underestimate nature(less)

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Jan 26, 2012 Marita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A proper adult book for a change, this is an interesting environmental thought provoker. Points of view of three main characters are alternated and we gradually see the connections - some more obvious than others. Alma is an environmentalist working for the parks authority overseeing the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, California. Her main task is to manage programs designed to rid the islands of feral animals and to renew native breeds. Her vehement opponent is an animal rights activist who...more

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Aug 30, 2011 H R Koelling rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first T.C. Boyle novel I ever read. What an incredible writer! I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of his skill as an author, but also enjoyed the plot and subject matter.

What I didn't like was his sometimes rambling prose that would careen off in some unknown and superfluous direction that had nothing to do with the rest of the book. I was reminded of some of the sections of Melville's "Moby Dick" at times. For instance, the scene that immediately comes to mind is his mention of...more

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Jul 29, 2011 christa rated it 4 of 5 stars

TC Boyle's novel When the Killing's Done pits dueling factions of animal-diggers against each other in a bloody battle. In one corner is Alma Boyd Takesue, a researcher bent on killing the zillions of rats who have unnaturally come to habitat a small island off of California. The furry-faced rodents are mucking up the ecosystem, killing off birds and throwing things out of whack. In the other corner is a dreadlocked veggie head named David LaJoy, who believes it is ethically irresponsible to kil...more TC Boyle's novel When the Killing's Done pits dueling factions of animal-diggers against each other in a bloody battle. In one corner is Alma Boyd Takesue, a researcher bent on killing the zillions of rats who have unnaturally come to habitat a small island off of California. The furry-faced rodents are mucking up the ecosystem, killing off birds and throwing things out of whack. In the other corner is a dreadlocked veggie head named David LaJoy, who believes it is ethically irresponsible to kill anything that is living, so he protests and vandalizes and invents a way to foil the attack on the rats.

What a snoozer, right. Like having the flu, losing the remote control in the couch cushions and being forced to watch a very special 10-hour PBS special in which people scream at each other while chained to a McDonalds.

Wrong.

The story opens with a scene that could be held spine to spine with "Gulliver's Travels" or "Robinson Crusoe." It's truly a a leg-numbing, page turning adventure tale. It's a flashback to when Alma's grandmother Beverly was a newly wed trying, with her husband and brother-in-law, to get into the fishing business. After sunny times with beer and sandwiches and sea sickness, there is a wicked storm that demolishes the boat. The husband and brother-in-law drown and Beverly perches on a floating cooler, dehydrated, for days. Eventually she makes her way to a rat-filled island where she is presumably saved. The kicker: She was unknowingly pregnant. At one point Boyle, who has a Type A control of words and applies them in a Type B sort of way, stops the story so the reader can imagine Alma telling this story across a table at a bar.

David LaJoy's girlfriend Anise, a big-haired folk singer, has an equally gut-punching back story involving time spent on an almost deserted island as a child while her mother worked as an in-house cook for a handful of men who were tending the island's sheep population. Anise is caught in a bloodletting when the owners of the property allow hunters to come in and bag some animals. And so she will never eat anything with a face again.

Aside from the two major digressions from the heart of the story, the rest of the plot involves Alma's struggles with the aggressive David as the issue moves from Save the Rats to Save the Pigs. The vandalism, the chance meetings. She plays the straight-laced, government-on-my-side researcher to his sneaky, outside the rules counter attacks. It is, in true TC Boyle style, fun, funny and done with ease.
(less)

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May 03, 2011 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book but wasn't engrossed in it as I often am by
novels. It's an impassioned account of environmentalism surrounding
the Channel Islands off the coast of California, and an even-handed treatment of the moral questions that arise with the problem of invasive species. Should they be allowed to run amok - live and let live approach (in this case, they're not a problem) - or, does the havoc they wreak on native plants and animals warrant their eradication. I hadn't read anything by T.C. B...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Joshua rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Kind of a disappointing three stars here as I'm a long-time fan of Boyle's and the first 40 pages of this are so utterly amazing, I was ready for that the entire story, but alas, it wasn't to be. The first 40 pages is as good as it gets though, but unfortunately the story jumps into the near present and switches back and forth between characters on opposite sides of the fence regarding the de-population of the Channel Islands of rats, pigs and other animals killing off the natural habitat. One c...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Dan Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars

A complex eco-terrorism novel set in Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands, especially Anacapa (where they’re killing off the invading rats) and Santa Cruz (where they’re killing off the invasion of pigs).

The forces of ecosystem nurturing and preservations (played by Alma Boyd Takesue, the young, engaging and idealistic naturalist) are trying to restore the islands to something like a native state. Rats jumped ship in the 19th century and began destroying the local bird populations. The obvious...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Jennyreadsexcessively rated it 4 of 5 stars

What I like best about T.C. Boyle's fiction is the tension he builds. I've now read 5 of his novels and consider Tortilla Curtain his masterpiece. Like Tortilla Curtain which is about immigration, here Boyle tackles another important hot debate in the modern world of California and the world in general-- animal protection and environmental rights.

The setting is the Channel Islands off California's coast near Santa Barbara (terrific map included in front pages). Humans have of course mucked thing...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Boyle, T. C. WHEN THE KILLING’S DONE. (2011). ***. In this latest offering from Boyle we are thrown into the ever present conflict of man-against-nature and especially nature run amok. The setting is the Barrier Islands, known as the Galapagos of North America, just about eleven miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. The islands, because of their relative isolation, serve as home to a variety of birds and mammals that don’t appear anywhere else on earth. These animals are being slowly forced...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

T C Boyle's new novel opens with one of the most gripping first chapters in fiction. A young married couple, recently reunited after WWII, are sailing their newly refurbished cabin cruiser, the Beverly B, in the Santa Barbara Channel when a storm comes up and they must fight for their lives. You know it won't end well because the chapter is titled "The Wreck of the Beverly B."

Beverly Boyd, the wife, eventually washes up on Anacapa, the easternmost of the Northern Channel Islands off the coast...more

T C Boyle's new novel opens with one of the most gripping first chapters in fiction. A young married couple, recently reunited after WWII, are sailing their newly refurbished cabin cruiser, the Beverly B, in the Santa Barbara Channel when a storm comes up and they must fight for their lives. You know it won't end well because the chapter is titled "The Wreck of the Beverly B."

Beverly Boyd, the wife, eventually washes up on Anacapa, the easternmost of the Northern Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. While she awaits rescue, she has an awful time with rats. Fast forward 60 years to Alma Boyd Takesue, National Park Service biologist, who resides in Santa Barbara. Her passion is saving the Channel Islands' endangered native creatures from invasive species such as rats and feral pigs; species introduced by human accident and design. She also happens to be Beverly Boyd's granddaughter.

Alma and her lover Tim, serious ecological workers, suffer from crowded freeways and automobile exhaust. They are vegan and health conscious, drive a Prius and abhor the overpopulation as well as the technology that threatens wild life and its habitats. Alma's orderly, tight-wound personality makes her hard to like despite her admirable aims.

Ostensibly the villain of the novel, Dave LaJoy is a local successful business owner with dreadlocks and severe anger issues. His organization, For the Protection of Animals, is adamantly opposed to the strategies spearheaded by Alma because they involve killing off hoards of rats and pigs. The FPA members demonstrate outside Alma's building and disrupt her press conferences. Dave LaJoy revels in twisted eco-terrorism raids on the islands, unaware of the irony that the rats and pigs he wants to save are ruining the natural world of the islands he loves to sail to.

As the battle between these two uncompromising characters wages on, we get a close look at one of the key dilemmas of the modern world. Which groups or organizations should be given responsibility for protecting the land, waters and wildlife? What are the correct solutions to mankind's unthinking, often greedy disturbances of ecological balance? Why the heck do some people get so emotional and dramatic about it all?

For such a socially conscious tale, the pace is brutal. The main characters are revealed in all their glorious complexity by the actions they take and the tangled backgrounds they bring to the conflict. Though he gives no easy answers and in fact tends to mock our human propensity to control everything, When the Killing's Done is also T C Boyle's paean to the uncontrollable nature of all life forms.(less)

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Feb 12, 2011 Shinynickel marked it as to-read

Off this review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archi...

T. Coraghessan Boyle’s new When the Killing’s Done falls in nicely with the mood of Margaret Atwood’s vatic sci-fi tales or Jonathan Franzen’s recent, naturalistic Freedom with its impassioned defense of birds. Though he’s been writing for a long time about America’s problems, Boyle usually does so more covertly, in a comic voice with comedy’s concealed agenda. Here, though, there’s the note of the preacher in despair that has surfaced som...more Off this review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archi...

T. Coraghessan Boyle’s new When the Killing’s Done falls in nicely with the mood of Margaret Atwood’s vatic sci-fi tales or Jonathan Franzen’s recent, naturalistic Freedom with its impassioned defense of birds. Though he’s been writing for a long time about America’s problems, Boyle usually does so more covertly, in a comic voice with comedy’s concealed agenda. Here, though, there’s the note of the preacher in despair that has surfaced sometimes in past novels, notably The Tortilla Curtain (1995), his admired book about illegal Hispanic immigrants in L.A.’s Topanga Canyon.

...

It’s an exciting narrative, incorporating tragedy, anger, and a satisfying amount of natural history, with the entangled moral complexities so difficult to unravel that the reader may find himself saying, “just tell me what to think.” Boyle doesn’t, but one can feel his pleasure in dramatizing the inherent paradoxes of issues that do finally seem insoluble. If along the way he sometimes renders Dave LaJoy’s indignant moral reflections more convincingly, at least to this reader, than Alma’s descriptions of succulent lamb stews or reasoned defense of birds’ eggs, perhaps this is a misreading. Boyle is adroit at avoiding black and white; but the emotional impact seems weighted against the killing by the fact that he’s writing about it. As in others of his works, absolute notions of right and wrong demand sacrifice and exact a heavy price, as poor Dave LaJoy discovers.

...

In Boyle’s hands, however, his range of topical subjects and his wittiness turn polemics into his particular domain, with a body of entertaining and absorbing novels that seem, over a period of thirty years, to document and mirror the slow morph of the counterculture into the mainstream almost better than anybody’s. He began in the vein of Vonnegut or Swift, wryly determined to épater le bourgeois. By now, it’s much harder to distinguish who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s cool, and he’s no longer so sure either. Who is the villain of When the Killing’s Done? In the end, Boyle’s scorn is for the irredeemable, and for him that includes a lot of mankind.(less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can understand why this novel is compared to his earlier "Tortilla Curtain" since both present two (or more) sides of a controversial issue with a smattering of right and wrong on each side. Here, the clash is over eradicating rats and pigs from two of Southern California's Channel Islands. The National Park Service wants these two non-native species removed from the ecosystem in order to save and reintroduce the native flora and fauna. On the other side of the battle is a small but militant a...more

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About T.C. Boyle

T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eleven novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguis...more

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“Sometimes, when she's out here alone, she can feel the pulse of something bigger, as if all things animate were beating in unison, a glory and a connection that sweeps her out of herself, out of her consciousness, so that nothing has a name, not in Latin, not in English, not in any known language.” — 7 people liked it

“But then all writers smoke, don't they? And drink? And sit in front of computer screens till their arteries clog and muscles atrophy?” — 1 person liked it

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