Biodiesel: A Novel

In an effort to beat the high cost of living, Anthropology Professor Thomas McGrath sets out to achieve energy independence by home-brewing biodiesel, a renewable fuel made from discarded cooking oil. Aided by his conspiracy-theorist, non-conformist friend, Jack Hancock, Thomas builds a biodiesel processor out of recycled appliances and produces an initial batch of high quality fuel. As Thomas sets out to find a steady supplier of used cooking oil, he is dismayed to learn that his neighbor, the avaricious businessman Vincent Tremayne, has all but cornered the waste oil market in a greedy bid to monopolize the "eco-friendly" biodiesel industry. A comedy of errors ensues as Vincent Tremayne and Thomas McGrath become locked in a desperate contest for control of the scarce raw material needed to make biodiesel. BIODIESEL is a comedic satire of environmentalism and the energy crisis, of corporate greed and government corruption. In a manner redolent of John Kennedy Toole's CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, Joseph Heller's CATCH-22, and E. Annie Proulx's THE SHIPPING NEWS, BIODIESEL tells the story of an odd-ball cast of disparate characters--of philosophers and trophy wives--of financiers and fashion designers--of commercial fishermen, gourmet chefs and eco-terrorists--each drawn together by circumstance, on a collision course with destiny.