Blue Skies

By: T. C. Boyle

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

From best-selling novelist T. C. Boyle, a satirical yet ultimately moving take on contemporary American life in the glare of climate change.

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful boyfriend, Cat decides that she needs a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry.” But when the budding social influencer finally gives in to impulse, buying a Burmese python from a local pet shop, she sets in motion a chain of increasingly dire events that culminates in one of the most memorable denouements in recent fiction, one that ensnares her entire family, from her eco-obsessed parents, Ottilie and Frank, to her frat-boy-turned-husband, Todd.

But there’s more than meets the eye in this compulsive family drama. Lurking beneath the banal façade of twenty-first-century California and Florida is a caricature of materialist American society that doubles as a prophetic warning about our planet’s future.

An eco-thriller with teeth, Boyle’s Blue Skies is at once a tragicomic satire and a prescient novel that captures the absurdity and “inexpressible sadness at the heart of everything.”

©2023 T. C. Boyle (P)2023 Recorded Books

Climate change up close and personal

A story of an American family and their relationship with each other with climate change always there shaping and changing their lives. Smart, often funny, always captivating.

Terrific characters & performance

The characters were vivid and flawed, and the story was engaging and laced with glimpses of a not-too-distant future when climate change has fully taken hold. Also, the performance was absolutely outstanding.

Interesting and exciting

I learned a few things about the natural world (snakes, ticks, climate change, termites) while also being thoroughly entertained.

Boyle On Top Again

I maybe biased, but, I feel TC Boyle is one of our greatest living authors.
“Blue Skies”, is another wonderful example of his skill, wit, subtlety, creativity and command of the English language.

Classic T.C. Boyle Novel

I loved this book! This was classic T.C. Boyle. He's such a great storyteller, his characters flawed, sometimes even unlikeable, though still relatable. I disagree with the other reviewers who claimed this story to be "preachy." Boyle's characters often have extreme points of view -- extremely conservative, as in "The Harder They Come," extremely far-left. This is how he explores the issues his novels address. Climate change, immigration, authoritarianism, extremism. So I didn't find this novel preachy at all, but it is at times depressing as he graphically describes the changing climate and how it impacts ordinary people. Lauren Groff's "Arcadia" did the same thing, and it's important for people to read. This was a great book and definitely worth the credit.

Pedantic eco-screed

I reread the entirety of TC Boyle’s novels in the last couple years so I’m a fan. But this one is a dog. It’s so preachy, the characters are insufferable or boring and there’s basically no plot, just a string of Wikipedia global warming factoids. Just an interminable recounting of the many ways humanity has screwed up the planet and the nightmare that is to come. I finished it but I should have returned it. Very disappointing.