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T.C. Boyle - Drop City

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  • T.C. Boyle - Drop City

    I've recently finished reading this book and I found it quite interesting, so much that I'd like to give a short review.

    The plot starts in June 1970 and settles around a hippie commune in Sonoma Country, California. Or better, it settles around it's inhabitants who are many and each with a story of its own. Boyle slips into its characters one at a time and in seemingly random order. We get to know Star, Marco, Ron, Norm, Jiminy, Merry, Verbie, Lydia, Albert, Premstar and many more, some of them we know better and from the inside while others do not get revealed that much and you've got to solve a jigsaw puzzle of the other's opinions to paint a picture of them.
    These brothers and sisters live together in a commune and we get absorbed quickly into what seems an "everday-hippie-life" - irony or reality? The image Boyle portraits is both, because it seems realistic and because this is the irony. We learn about how people in an open society, open to everyone, have to deal with parasites and accusations of racism. How daily work is still divided in gender roles, despite the hatred against all that is the plastic society. But, we also learn about love relationships that evolve and about the big festivals that keep the group together and happy. It's a constant up and down, it's like being on drugs for yourself and flowing with the story.

    At the same time and this is when our minds get clear again - where we wake up and rub our eyes to get the drugs out. At the same time, Boyle pictures another "commune", one that is inherently different, yet interesting. He evolves the story of a furtrapper in Alaska, named Cecil "Sess" Harder. A guy whose girlfriend left him because of cabin-fever during the long winter-night and who is on the verge of a new relationship. And while the hippies only claim to live off the land, this is reality for him. The next bigger "city" Boynton lies several miles away, a three hour boat trip. Women are rare in the backlands and lonesomness is a constant fact. Jack London would be envious.

    It's interesting to see the two stories evolve in parallel and the sharp contrast of jumping from one scene to the other just strengthens the tension to see what happens when both finally clash - and they will clash, as we already experience from the description on the back of the book.

    After reading it, we feel to be able to build a log cabin, go hunting bears, cook moose-stew and sleep outside in a tent at -40°C. We feel we can do it, while listening to the Greateful Dead, The Rolling Stones and many more. Boyle doesn't give an answer to how long both cultures exist in parallel and that's the criticism, that the end falls short.

    Overall, it's an interesting book and I can definately recommend to read it.

    Here are some more reviews:
    NY Times
    Christian Monitor
    LA Times

  • #2
    I love Boyle's writing. I've read Water Music (finding the source of the Niger River), Budding Prospects (marijuana farming) and a collection of short stories. The most memorable short story was one called Bloodfall, about some people trapped in a house while it rained blood outside.

    His writing style is lively and witty.

    I need to pick up some more books by him. Maybe after I finish reading Bukowski's Hollywood.
    "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
    —Orson Welles as Harry Lime

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    • #3
      I've finished a Bukowski recently as well. He's got a very nice style and I could really feel a lot with the person all the ups and downs.

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      • #4
        stupid hippies
        To us, it is the BEAST.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Sava
          stupid hippies
          Are you having a flashback? I don't see anything about hippies here.

          But:

          How do you hide money from a hippy?

          Put it underneath the soap.
          "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
          —Orson Welles as Harry Lime

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          • #6
            Originally posted by MosesPresley


            Are you having a flashback? I don't see anything about hippies here.
            I believe it's still considered traditional to read the opening posts to threads. You unbelieveable fool.
            The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

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            • #7
              To us, it is the BEAST.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by MosesPresley
                How do you hide money from a hippy?

                Put it underneath the soap.

                Comment


                • #9
                  What do you think of the review itself, btw?

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                  • #10
                    It doesn't capture the plot well- we get an image of a hippy-dippy idyll, whereas the book itself is really brutal, frequently.
                    The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp


                      I believe it's still considered traditional to read the opening posts to threads. You unbelieveable fool.
                      well, EXCUUUUUUSE ME!
                      "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
                      —Orson Welles as Harry Lime

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Not while I still draw breath.
                        The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
                          Not while I still draw breath.
                          "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
                          —Orson Welles as Harry Lime

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            How do you know a hippie's been in your fridge?

                            It's empty.

                            How do you know a hippie's been in your house?

                            He's still there.
                            Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
                              It doesn't capture the plot well- we get an image of a hippy-dippy idyll, whereas the book itself is really brutal, frequently.
                              thx!
                              About the plot, I didn't like it to contain so many spoilers, so I hesitated to tell too much about the story.

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