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Arcadia

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 6,817 ratings · 1,351 reviews

In the fields and forests of western New York State in the late 1960s, several dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding what becomes a famous commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this lyrical, rollicking, tragic, and exquisite utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday and after. The story is...more

Hardcover, 290 pages

Published March 13th 2012 by Voice

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Oct 02, 2012 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

i had reservations about this book because, well, look at that cover. fucking hippies.

but i should have known that lauren groff would write a spectacular book even if it was about fucking hippies. i have read all three of her books now, and while monsters of templeton is still far and away the winner in the "books by lauren groff" award ceremonies, this one is very very good.

this novel focuses on bit, a child born into a hippie commune, and checks in with him during four periods in his life.

whe...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Kylie rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

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Feb 27, 2013 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This is really like a 3.5 or a 3.7.

Groff is an astonishingly gifted writer. She conveys atmosphere like no one else, and as in The Monsters of Templeton, she creates a world and then moves through time with it. (Also like Monsters, you may think she's juggling too many characters and that detracts from the overall impact.)

She does a marvelous job though creating the commune of Arcadia, shown in its heyday, its Reagan-era decline, its diaspora, and then its slightly futuristic (2018) new incarnat...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-fiction

Oh what a fine novel this is, one of the few I feel is worthy of the 5-star rating. This is a book that leaves you sad because it has ended, but also happy because you have read it and got to know Bit, his mother Hannah, and his father Abe, whom I wish could be real people who are greatly admired friends of mine living their lives of clarity and substance somewhere in the wilds of upstate New York, not so far from me.

This is a finely crafted, exquisitely written, and particularly interesting nov...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

So, the first section, experiencing that world through Bit, was emotionally provocative, well-written, sad, but deeply insightful into the emotional life of that sensitive boy. Beyond that, the book became somewhat formulaic for me and lost the thing that made it special. I was still interested in the story - in a beach-read, what-happens-next kind of way - but not engaged by the characters in the same way.

One more criticism - beyond the main characters, there are so many others, especially amo...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc

Hippies! Soy cheese! Fermented apple booze with acid in it! White dresses! Upstate New York, which is actually a chillier version of Mayberry!

Sooo the book is about Bit, a little boy growing up in a hippie commune in the '70s. There's a charming, erratic, hilarious and heart-wrenching cast of characters. The commune falls apart (as communes are wont to do) and we then follow Bit into the Outer World, and into adulthood and fatherhood.

It's slow going, mmkay? The whole focus here is on slowing dow...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Austin Doyle rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first 50 pages slowly but surely hooked my interest: the story centers around a small boy with a 'bit' of The Tin Drum to him, born in a VW van to a couple that are part of a band of free spirits, who find a farm called Arcadia to settle down on and live off the land. Set in the early 70's, the child,Bit, is born premature and tiny for his age, doesn't speak, but is the center of a narration full of wonder, apprehension, and love that makes up the early struggle to live off the land and endu...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Callie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, 2012

On audio!

...gold dust is sprinkled on memories, so that they shine..."

Arcadia is the story of Bit, who grows up on a commune in upstate New York. The story begins when Bit (who is so called because he is very little, the "littlest bit of a hippie") is just 4 years old, living in a bread truck with his parents in "Ersatz Arcadia", the group of tents, lean-to's, vans, and other temporary houses that house the commune until the mansion on the land, Arcadia house, is restored. The story follows Bit...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Lydia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: interviewed

Arcadia is a hypnotic, addicting novel. Although this is not a plot-driven page-turner in the traditional sense, I found it hard to tear myself away. Two things impressed me enormously here:

1. Groff tells the story of Bit, a child born in a hippie commune, in three stages. In the first section he's a very young child, in the second a teenager, and in the third approaching middle age. Writing from a child's point of view is so dangerous -- it's so easy to send it into sentiment or to clunk it up...more Arcadia is a hypnotic, addicting novel. Although this is not a plot-driven page-turner in the traditional sense, I found it hard to tear myself away. Two things impressed me enormously here:

1. Groff tells the story of Bit, a child born in a hippie commune, in three stages. In the first section he's a very young child, in the second a teenager, and in the third approaching middle age. Writing from a child's point of view is so dangerous -- it's so easy to send it into sentiment or to clunk it up with asides to the reader all the time. It was immediately obvious that the narration here, while in third person, would have no filter -- there's no "looking back on those days" or "now that he was older." In fact, there is no intrusion between the reader and the child's authentic consciousness. What he sees we see. What he feels we feel. And the things that we as adult readers can piece together from his experience are our own to interpret. That was awesome.

2. While Groff has a huge cast in a fairly short novel yet they never bleed into each other and become muddy. Somehow she deftly maintains the uniqueness of a lot of characters that are very similar in context. And while these hippies are so close to ridiculous -- the nakedness, the soy everything, the language of love revolution -- they never become cartoons. Many of these images, many of these phrases now make us roll our eyes. The outfits sound like Halloween costumes. Yet these people are so real on the page, so specific to themselves, it's impossible to dismiss them as caricatures or deny them as wholly rounded, interesting characters with their own lives, their own identities within the demographic they typify.

At one point in the book, someone articulates the priorities of the Arcadia commune: hard work, poverty, simple food, and community. Somehow, it all goes awry. Yet it is not only in the beginning that it is beautiful and in the end that it's terrible. In the small ways, in the real ways, it's beautiful and terrible all the way through. (less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

There were parts of Arcadia I liked very much, especially the language and themes, but overall, I found it uneven. The first part, particularly, was a bit tough to get through, an overlong history of the commune Arcadia, told in the voice of a child whose parents helped found it under the leadership of a sketchy character named Handy. The fact there was little conflict in this first half of the book, along with the narrator’s voice, describing much but perceiving little, made this section less c...more There were parts of Arcadia I liked very much, especially the language and themes, but overall, I found it uneven. The first part, particularly, was a bit tough to get through, an overlong history of the commune Arcadia, told in the voice of a child whose parents helped found it under the leadership of a sketchy character named Handy. The fact there was little conflict in this first half of the book, along with the narrator’s voice, describing much but perceiving little, made this section less compelling.

But it did pick up. Once it got rolling, I liked the later parts of it quite a bit. Groff’s outstanding facility with language is apparent throughout, lush and lyrical with original imagery that sometimes just stopped me in my tracks. The writing was top-notch and was put to better purpose in the second half, when the adolescent and grown-up narrator Bit could bring more to the table in reflecting on his past and present experiences that shaped his attitudes toward family, community, freedom and conformity, and the striving for perfection in a very flawed world.

The founders of the fictional commune of Arcadia reclaim an abandoned estate in upstate New York and rehabilitate the mansion on the grounds with the goal of becoming a largely self-sufficient, off-the-grid social experiment. They are trying to get back to the land, reject notions of corporate capitalism and the corruption it breeds, and create a better world. A classroom discussion led by Bit’s father Abe references both George Eliot and Milton in Paradise Lost as the children discuss the ways “civilization can be better if we just believe,” that “we are doing good by trying to do good.” Abe points out that both writers back up the idea that “desiring change is a powerful way of making change; that change unfolds from this desire,” but while intention is important, so is the struggle to act on good intentions in a way that was not happening in Arcadia’s present reality.

Even after it becomes clear that things are not right in this supposed utopia, that there is a snake in the Garden and human nature, with its inevitable self-interest, will always be a factor, there is an exploration through the story of the boundaries of idealism and reality, the clash between them, and the value of the pursuit itself. Arcadia is not at all an endorsement of the communal lifestyle, but throughout the book there seems to be a celebration of that part of the human spirit that desires and works toward positive change, the notion that it is the relentless pursuit toward improvement despite all odds that defines the best in us. So no matter how far short we fall, you still gotta try.

The child Bit is raised in an environment where the (impossible) goal was a community of perfect purity and caring, equity and harmony. As an adult Bit struggles with loss and heartache out in the real world, in New York City, where he has become a photographer and professor, trying to raise his daughter alone. His nostalgia for Arcadia makes him yearn for “the people, the interconnection, everyone relying on everyone else, the closeness.” He still wishes for a sense of community which, since the demise of small-town America and experiments like Arcadia, can only be found in a city: “millions of people breathing the same air.” And yet he recognizes the tenuous nature of all human interactions. He stops into a diner alone one Thanksgiving night and observes the scene:

“When people come in, he tries to guess who they are . . .They sit here in the darkness, trusting. That the coffee will be hot and unpoisoned. That no raging madman will come in with a gun or a bomb. It leaves him breathless at times, how much faith people put in one another. So fragile, the social contract: we will all stand by the rules, move with care and gentleness, invest in the infrastructure, agree with the penalties of failure. That this man driving his truck down the street won’t, on a whim, angle into the plate glass and end things. That the president won’t let his hand hover the red button and, in a moment of rage or weakness, explode the world. The invisible tissue of civilization: so thin, so easily rendable. It’s a miracle that it exists at all.”

Throughout years of loss and heartbreak for Bit – and some of the last third of the book is very, very sad – he never stops believing in the value of pursuing a better world, of finding solace in the beauty that exists to mitigate the sorrow, or in love as he dotes on his adored daughter Grete. There is a great passage on page 212 when Bit and Grete share lists of their favorite things – “The sharpness of radishes on the middle of the tongue. A hot shower after a cold day. Abe’s funny little knock knees. . . Grape cough syrup” -- that reminded me of Woody Allen’s why-is-life-worth-living monologue in Manhattan. And in the midst of grief, loss and trouble, when Bit finds some long-forgotten and undeveloped film in Abe’s desk, even though the images might be ruined, he knew “the distortion of age could make for the unexpected, the sublime. . . He wanted to sing. How perverse, the possibility of beauty, unearthed when he least expected it. That there could be such surprises left in the world. He goes out into the sunlight, something softening and settling within him.”
(less)

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Mar 17, 2012 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ala-2012

I don't know about this, you guys. I've heard good things about "Monsters of Templeton," so I was excited to read this, but I kind of have to say it left me going "so what?" This review is kind of spoiler-heavy, because I can't think of anything to do but say what happened, because I didn't love anything in particular enough to talk about it.
SPOILERS!
The first couple of sections deal with a boy growing up in a commune, which is fairly interesting, but certainly not a topic that hasn't been dealt...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Jeanette rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, did-not-work-for-me

Am I just the buzzkill who wouldn't drop acid at the party? Did someone shut off the volcano that fueled my lava lamp? How do I explain my huge disappointment in this book?

I, who loved The Monsters of Templeton and Delicate Edible Birds, found Arcadia unreadable. Why? The story is slave to the style. Groff uses a floaty, present tense, semi-random flow that very nearly resembles a plot, but not quite. Everything is seen through the eyes of Bit, a little boy who somehow doesn't seem to be "all t...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Marcy Dermansky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here is the thing about beach reads. I took this book to the beach with me, but I never even packed it in my beach bag, because I went to the beach with my three year old daughter, which meant that I never read or took long leisurely walks or swam and swam on my own, because Nina doesn't let me do that.

But, that said, Arcadia ws such a good book to take on vacation, and I just finished it, the day after my vacation ended, while Nina was busy on a swing. I hope the future isn't quite as Lauren G...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

I did not like this one, although it did get better as I continued to read. Maybe the writing is more descriptive than I like, which made it slow reading for me. Just couldn't get into the characters, who are members of two families that founded and lived on a commune in the Sixties.

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Dec 31, 2012 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: hippy, growing-farming-foraging, unreliable-narrator, dystopia, coming-of-age, environmental, sad, reviewed

One of those books that can seem a bit slow at times but it's done intentionally- to make the reader actually slow down and think about it. Really beautifully written. My only problem with my library copy was the dire cover, it's the one with a little grey skinny boy crouching down on a dark background, it makes it look like a misery memoir! The book inside is so much better than that cover makes out.

1 like · like · see review

Nov 01, 2012 Janice rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised how much I liked this book. I guess I really shouldn't judge a book by its cover...

1 like · like · see review

Sep 08, 2012 Travis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Beautifully written. Each sentence is its own novel. After a while, though, the gloom became a bit much. Honest and unpretentious. I'd recommend.

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Jun 02, 2013 Holly Robinson rated it 5 of 5 stars

We read books to be entertained, to be informed, to have a laugh, to escape the day-to-day. And then, every now and then, we stumble across a book that we read at just the right moment in our lives for us to be bewitched, transported and transformed.

That just happened to me while reading Arcadia by Lauren Groff. This isn't a new novel—it was first published by Hyperion in 2012—and the fact of the matter is that I tried reading it four separate times before I finally was able to become absorbed b...more We read books to be entertained, to be informed, to have a laugh, to escape the day-to-day. And then, every now and then, we stumble across a book that we read at just the right moment in our lives for us to be bewitched, transported and transformed.

That just happened to me while reading Arcadia by Lauren Groff. This isn't a new novel—it was first published by Hyperion in 2012—and the fact of the matter is that I tried reading it four separate times before I finally was able to become absorbed by this book. That's what it feels like, once you get into the rhythm of the language: as if you're falling down a well or crossing through some sort of foggy membrane and entering another dimension entirely, your entire being surrounded by Groff's magical imagery.

The story revolves around Bit, who is a very young boy when the novel opens, living with his parents in a commune in the 1970's, and traces his life as the commune rises and falls, and as he has to make his way in the world after this Utopian dream shatters. The language in the novel is dreamy and complex, especially in the first half of the novel, when we are trapped in Bit's perspective as a child and can only glean from snatches of conversation what's going on around him. I was fully expecting the language to become simpler as Bit aged out of the commune and, in the second half of the book, is an adult living and working and parenting a young child of his own. Instead, the language grew even more lush, with image after image that floored me.

By the end of the novel, I was weeping not only for Bit's personal losses—and there are many—but also for the loss of our nation's innocence—an innocence that once allowed us, as children of the 1960's and 1970's, to truly believe we could be in harmony with each other and with nature instead of in constant conflict. It was a good cry—I don't mean to imply that the book is depressing. The emotions Groff provokes are complicated and cleansing. You will wake from the dream of Arcadia, as Bit does, determined to do whatever you can to stay more fully present in your life and aware of the magic of everyday things.(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lauren Groff takes us back in time to a hippie commune that might have been and forward in time to a future where the commune's failures are the failures of the broader world. The portion of the story told by Bit, the premie baby who became the littlest bit of a hippie ever, is its most enchanting during Bit's and the community's youngest days. This first part of the three-part tale takes us inside of a fictional utopia from the viewpoint of the very real utopia of childhood. It's fun and brings...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lauren Groff's epic novel, set mostly on a commune in upstate New York called Arcadia, spanning decades, populated with a cast of dozens, has a huge big glorious middle part--like, three-quarters of the total book--that I absolutely loved. Loved loved loved. Couldn't wait to get back to it. Couldn't wait to see how our hero Bit was doing, whom we first meet when he's... well, when he's an infant, really, even though he's our quasi-narrator (what's that called, by the way, when a novel's POV belo...more Lauren Groff's epic novel, set mostly on a commune in upstate New York called Arcadia, spanning decades, populated with a cast of dozens, has a huge big glorious middle part--like, three-quarters of the total book--that I absolutely loved. Loved loved loved. Couldn't wait to get back to it. Couldn't wait to see how our hero Bit was doing, whom we first meet when he's... well, when he's an infant, really, even though he's our quasi-narrator (what's that called, by the way, when a novel's POV belongs to a single character, but the author uses the third person?) in the late 1960s and whom we finally say goodbye to in 2018 or so. Yes, there's a futuristic element to Arcadia, complete with a few sci-fi-y touches. Anyway, yes, Groff does a wonderful job of bringing Arcadia fully to life: how it operated; what it meant to the people who lived there, even long after they stopped living there; how it smelled (horrible, usually), and tasted (very, very, very vegan); what it felt like to be a core part of such a community when it all was good. And when it all went bad, And it was a big place! At its peak there were several thousand people living in Arcadia which, of course, is also why it collapsed, for predictable reasons, eg, selfishness, distrust, drugs, poverty, money, envy. Groff is a lovely, first-rate writer, maybe a tad flourishy in parts, but her imagination and imagery make me want to check out her first novel, The Monsters of Templeton.

The novel is divided into four sections, and there may be some SPOILERS ahead: when Bit's a baby and a little kid, and the commune is new, and I feel like we meet just about everyone who lives there; when Bit's a teenager and falls in unrequited love with his best friend Helle (these were the most amazing scenes... Groff NAILS that self-torturing dynamic), and the place has grown, and is full of runaways and Trippies, people so fried they need Minders, and it all becomes impossible to manage; when Bit's an adult living in Brooklyn--Groff makes the dead-on point that urban living, in a pedestrian/public transportation-reliant city like New York, is more communal in many (most?) ways than, certainly, suburbia, but also most rural communities--teaching photography at what is probably NYU; and, finally, when Bit moves back to Arcadia, because ________, while the rest of the world teeters.

Why the four stars, then? Like I said, I loved most of Arcadia, but it took maybe 40 pages for me to fall into the rhythm of Groff's writing, to feel grounded in the emotional and physical geography of the place, and the novel's last act didn't pack the punch I wanted/needed it to. Felt a little too neat. That said, if you, like me, have a special affinity to the concept of the commune (my closest real-life experience was a rural, no-rules boarding school), of really belonging to something that's larger than yourself, then Arcadia will undoubtably hit that sweet spot in your heart. (less)

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Apr 06, 2013 Carol Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had a boyfriend in college with strong ties to a commune overlooking Puget Sound on a beautiful island mid- point between Seattle and Canada. We spent long summer weekends there enjoying the quiet off-the-grid beauty of the natural world. I’ve often wondered what became of the community-- especially two young children, Heron and Critter.
Finally someone has addressed this intriguing part of American history. Arcadia is a novel that explores life for Bit (the oddball name sounds authentic), who...more I had a boyfriend in college with strong ties to a commune overlooking Puget Sound on a beautiful island mid- point between Seattle and Canada. We spent long summer weekends there enjoying the quiet off-the-grid beauty of the natural world. I’ve often wondered what became of the community-- especially two young children, Heron and Critter.
Finally someone has addressed this intriguing part of American history. Arcadia is a novel that explores life for Bit (the oddball name sounds authentic), who was born and raised in the fictional commune. Arcadia is founded by intelligent, well-meaning and committed people. Then, as is often the case, success attracted a different crowd contributing to its demise.
The first part of the novel is brilliantly told from Bit Stone’s childhood point of view. Arcadia is a large commune with a lot of activity. Sights, sounds and particularly smells are lavishly described—often in lyrical language. Bit is a sensitive child who although he suffers from his mother’s depression, a lack of food, the cold, and a general lack of creature comforts, has no interest is leaving the only home he’s ever known.
This part of the book is packed with thought-provoking details. Except for the author’s irritating decision not to use punctuation to indicate speech, the book has its strengths. Lauren Groff did a great job on commune life. For example, the commune is led by a charismatic musician, Handy, who becomes predictably corrupt. The powerful effect of popular music on the counter-culture of the time was accurate and believable. However, 1) such a commune would have thrived slightly earlier in time, not after Jonestown, or Ronald Reagan’s election and 2) a raison d'être for the commune (the draft for the war in Vietnam) would have been more prominent in everyone’s consciousness. On the real-life commune I knew, people dodging the draft on their way to Canada were often drop-ins. Their unexpected stays often depleted the resources of the generous community.
The last part of the novel was weak. There is very little plot and what there is seems silly (a pandemic named ‘SARI’). It’s as if Groff ran out of juice after her strong start. I wanted to learn how Bit handled the transition to life beyond Arcadia, but that was skipped over. As with the lives of Heron and Critter, I still wonder.
(less)

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Mar 29, 2013 Siobhan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this to be an engrossing and enjoyable read, and Ms Groff's writing has a uniquely hypnotic quality to it that can ensnare the reader when there is little else in the narrative to keep their interest. Somehow though, I was left feeling just a bit let down somehow, perhaps the transition between the first half of the novel and the second, both in action and tone did not happen smoothly enough for me, or perhaps its that Bit and the other characters continually fell just short of sympathet...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Darlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel by Lauren Groff takes place in western New York in the late 1960's. It is the story of a group of several dozen people who decide to come together and live self-sufficiently off the land... yes, a commune! This commune takes shape around an old, falling down house which the group comes into possession of and is called Arcadia House.

This novel is full of many colorful characters with equally colorful names; but the main focus of the story is on a particular family unit... Abe, Hannah a...more This novel by Lauren Groff takes place in western New York in the late 1960's. It is the story of a group of several dozen people who decide to come together and live self-sufficiently off the land... yes, a commune! This commune takes shape around an old, falling down house which the group comes into possession of and is called Arcadia House.

This novel is full of many colorful characters with equally colorful names; but the main focus of the story is on a particular family unit... Abe, Hannah and their son.. the first born in the commune. His name is Ridley Sorrel Stone but is called 'Bit'... as in "littlest bit of a hippie". Everything that is experienced in this story and by the group is seen through Bit's eyes. Bit, born prematurely, remains small in stature his entire life but has a very tender heart and sensitive soul.. he was a character I could relate to in so many ways. This story follows Bit and his parents and the other members of the community through several decades.

Although fascinating to read, this story was, at times, difficult too. The idea of the commune was to pool everyone's resources... nobody and yet everybody owned everything together. Unfortunately, the population continued to grow and grow and the resources dwindled.. leaving the members in grinding poverty .....cold and with not enough to eat in the long winter months. A scene I won't soon forget is Bit describing seeing a toddler in the field in the early morning light, gnawing on an unripe ear of corn .. to ease her hungry belly.

This story, so eloquently told by Ms. Groff was, to me, symbolic of just why 'ideals' that people often carry within themselves just do not seem to translate well into practice in the reality of the world. In an 'ideal' world, a group of people coming together to live simply off the land, taking care of each other, being responsible for each other, sharing everything and living by their own rules... or no rules... sounds like utopia. As this story demonstrates, however, that never seems to be the way things work out. Whether it is because the world is not perfect and human beings are not perfect and consequently, the perfect society is just not possible ..,well, that is anyone's guess and you can come to your own conclusions.

When the population of Arcadia swelled to hundreds, this social experiment fell apart and the members scattered. Bit and his parents ended up in new York City... where Bit would remain for decades to follow. Ms. Groff beautifully described the 'culture shock' Bit experienced living in the city and continued to have difficulty with throughout his life... " Around him, a spin of bodies in dark coats, tapping thumbs on pads, pressing phones to heads, settling buds like cockroaches into ear canals, projecting an invisible shield of music as they moved through the crowd, digital companionship warmer than the bodies around them. Every soul on the street is sunk within its body." Bit eventually became the father of a daughter himself and a photographer.. sensitively seeking out and capturing all of those individual moments in time on film.

As much as Ms. Groff has written the story of what it means to be part of a family inside a community, she has also very tenderly written the story of this wonderful character, Bit. Bit's story is one of trying to figure out who he is and where he fits into the bigger picture that is society. Through his sensitivity and caring heart, he tries to discover the meaning of his individual life. Ms. Groff writes Bit's story with such sensitivity that I could not help but feel protective toward this very endearing character.

A fascinating description of a sociological experiment from the 1960s and some memorable characters! 4.5 stars! (less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Margalo rated it 2 of 5 stars

The first part of Arcadia was engrossing as life at the hippie oommune - the hardship, struggles, joys, and disillusionments - filter through to us through the eyes of the little boy, Bit, who had been born and raised there. There is a certain beauty to a life so close to the land, and as a child, Bit knows the names of plants, how babies are born, how to forage for food and darn a sock. We also learn of malnutrition, bad teeth, a certain debacle concerning a flock of sheep that spread an infect...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Nitya rated it 4 of 5 stars

As somewhat of a hippie myself, I was drawn to this tale of communal living in western New York in the 70's. I never made it to a commune, but I can imagine that a lot of the drama and politics in this book are accurate descriptions.
The commune is merely a backdrop to the actual story, which is about the relationships and the life of Bit, a child born in the commune to Abe and Hanna. Bit grows up in Arcadia, secluded from life in the outside world completely. His mother is depressed and life i...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Dianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lauren Groff has spun a tale worth reading. Her writing is sparse, yet beautifully detailed. Her characters are spun together to make a crazy quilt that is both interesting and unusually homey.

Home, in this case, begins in the 1960's utopian experiment called Arcadia. It is told through the eyes and mute voice of the first baby born to this Free People commune, Bit. There is a sense of oldness to Bit, wise and compassionate beyond his years. You see the grand experiment come to fruition and com...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Jenni Buchanan rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Arcadia Lauren Groff tells the story of Bit, a young boy born into a hippie commune in the 60’s. He lives a life of loving neglect as the community struggles to set down roots and survive, but still be true to their freedom-loving ideals. The book follows Bit as he grows to (and through) adulthood, chronicles the effect that the commune of Arcadia has had on him, and shows—through his eyes—the effect it has had on the other people in his life. In Arcadia Groff faithfully represents the defini...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Colleen O'Neill Conlan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

I was drawn to this tale of blissed-out hippies forming a commune in New York state. Great cover, with its 60s-era typeface and little idyllic cutouts: a butterfly covered with blooms, a mother lifting her baby to pluck a fruit from a tree, young children giving each other flowers. But it makes me wonder about the darker underbelly of communal living. This book offers both: the wonder and idealism, and the slow collapse as the community grows and changes.

These self-proclaimed Free People buy a c...more I was drawn to this tale of blissed-out hippies forming a commune in New York state. Great cover, with its 60s-era typeface and little idyllic cutouts: a butterfly covered with blooms, a mother lifting her baby to pluck a fruit from a tree, young children giving each other flowers. But it makes me wonder about the darker underbelly of communal living. This book offers both: the wonder and idealism, and the slow collapse as the community grows and changes.

These self-proclaimed Free People buy a chunk of land and a dilapidated mansion, christened Arcadia, where they intend to live as equals, grow food, and dwell beyond the Outside. Their motto is "Equality, Love, Work, Openness to the Needs of Others."
Every place in the compound has a name, always capitalized: the Gatehouse, the Family Quonsets, the Singleton Tent, the Free Store, the Henhouse (for women, not chickens), the Sheeps Meadow (and many more); and there are sub-groups of Free People, their labels also capitalized: the Scavengers, Pregnant Ladies, Ados (adolescents), the original Caravaners, etc. You start to get the sense that this little free love commune has as many divisions and labels as the Outside. The kidlets run free through the woods, swim in the pond, and do Tutorials according to their interests. They seem Happy. But they are also hungry all the time, their teeth are rotten, and they often indulge in many of the same drugs the older Free People do. Arcadia may not be the Eden they set out to create after all.

As more people learn about the commune and flock there, it grows beyond its space, and beyond its stated intention of parity. Friction is brewing, and a tragedy during their annual Cockaigne Day, which seems like a massive drug party complete with acid in the punch, brings a rift that shreds the community.

The protagonist is young Bit Stone, the first child of Arcadia. The book is told in sections, one when Bit is five, one when he is a teenager, one when he is a young adult, and one, a jump into a dystopian near-future, when he is an older adult. Despite what the jacket copy offers, about half of the novel takes place after the Free People scatter, although it's clear that Bit carries Arcadia wherever he goes.

Groff's writing is rich, sometimes overtly so. I sometimes grew tired of all the lush language and metaphors. But it's beautiful, no doubt. Her characters are developed and believable, especially Bit, his mother Hannah, daughter Grete, and the midwife Astrid. Although not stated outright, the story seems to start circa 1973. One child, pretending to be a horse, insists on being called Secretariat all that summer. Another child mimics Nixon's "I am not a crook" stance, making peace signs with her hands like that famous image many of saw on our televisions. But how do these young kidlets living on their TV-less commune know anything about Nixon, about Secretariat? Beyond a few of these incongruities, the author does give a realistic slice of communal living during that era. The story carried me along, and I found myself sniffling or crying outright more than once.
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Dec 22, 2012 Carole Graves rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book, which was on the Washington Post's list of best fiction of 2012, is beautifully written. Especially the first part. It describes the life of a commune of young people in the 70's in upstate New York from the point of view of the protagonst as a small child. A small group of misfits with varying issues and motives attempt a life away from the corruptions of current society in a rural area, experiencing malnutrition and continual cold in a constant struggle for basic survival. Groff acc...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Jess rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a human, I naturally have many opinions, and for some reason this book has generated even more than my normal sum.
Let me start with this, this book reminds me of Love. Yes, Love. Sometimes I want to dive write in (haha), and others I just try to block it out or I give it the silent treatment. So, be warned this book may generate a love-hate relationship.
One thing I dislike about this book is that it makes me come out of my nice cozy and comfy ignorance about the world. Arcadia reveals the fa...more

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About Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff was born in 1978 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and grew up one block from the Baseball Hall of Fame. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and Five Points as well as in the anthologies...more

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Quotes from Arcadia

“Childhood is such a delicate tissue; what they had done this morning could snag somewhere in the little ones, make a dull, small pain that will circle back again and again, and hurt them in small ways for the rest of their lives.” — 9 people liked it

“Freedom or community, community or freedom. One must decide the way one wants to live. I chose community.” — 5 people liked it

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