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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
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
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