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Drop City

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 6,120 ratings · 690 reviews

It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love, and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontier—the unforgiving landscape of interior Alaska—in the ultimate expression of going back to the land. Armed with the spirit of adventure and naïve optimism, the inhabitants of “Drop City” arrive in the wilderness of Alaska only t...more

Paperback, 512 pages

Published January 27th 2004 by Penguin Books (first published 2003)

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Feb 10, 2010 Eddie Watkins rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm prone to think less of a book that I can read while in a room with a TV on. Especially if on that TV is Kipper or Harry the Dirty Dog or Babar for the millionth time. But then maybe after a million times it's easier to tune out. And tune out I did, and tuned into Drop City. This was my first T. C. Boyle. For years I thought of him as some Tom Robbins type - a cloying insubstantial stylist - though I had never read even one of his words. This prejudice was based upon an annoying jacket photo,...more I'm prone to think less of a book that I can read while in a room with a TV on. Especially if on that TV is Kipper or Harry the Dirty Dog or Babar for the millionth time. But then maybe after a million times it's easier to tune out. And tune out I did, and tuned into Drop City. This was my first T. C. Boyle. For years I thought of him as some Tom Robbins type - a cloying insubstantial stylist - though I had never read even one of his words. This prejudice was based upon an annoying jacket photo, I think, in which he was wearing an annoying jacket. The jacket was an advertisement for cloying insubstantial stylist, with a magical realist veneer. I never gave him a chance after that. He even read once at a bookstore where I worked and I didn't even want to look at him. I hated the look of him. Even now after reading this I'm not a convert, though I now have respect for his ability to write a longish novel, a longish straightforward realist novel without a magical realist veneer, that I couldn't put down, through sickness and through health, through Martha Speaks and through Curious George.

I admired this book more for its details and set-pieces than for its larger themes and messages. In the larger scope of its themes there were few surprises. Of course there's in-fighting in a hippy commune, even as there are virtues that could recommend it. Of course if that hippy commune moves to Alaska for the winter things will not go well. So any larger intended social message was lost on me. I didn't want to hear it or I had heard it all already. But the landscapes described! The atmospheres delineated! And the storytelling from A to B to C. And the researched minutiae. These are what hooked me. Even the characters didn't enthral me. Or rather their development, or lack thereof, didn't. For a 450 page book the characters remained remarkably undeveloped, at least within the nitty-gritty of the actual words on the page, words applying specifically to them and their inner worlds. The characters were more like parts of the overall landscapes described, hippy-dippies and homesteaders inextricably linked to their environments; merged with their environments.

4 stars for sheer entertainment value and for its descriptions of hippy chick tits and grizzly bear violence trumping childrens programming.
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Jul 18, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

(Full essay can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

(Just like anyone else who is a lover of great books, I find myself sometimes with a desire to become a "completist" of certain authors; that is, to have read every book that author has ever written. This new series of essays chronicles that attempt.)

So first, a confession, that I still have a long way to go before becoming a completist of author TC Boyle; this is only the second novel of his I've re...more (Full essay can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

(Just like anyone else who is a lover of great books, I find myself sometimes with a desire to become a "completist" of certain authors; that is, to have read every book that author has ever written. This new series of essays chronicles that attempt.)

So first, a confession, that I still have a long way to go before becoming a completist of author TC Boyle; this is only the second novel of his I've read, to tell you the truth, the other one being The Road to Wellville, possibly his most famous because of the 1994 movie version starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, John Cusack and more. Oh, but what a novel! Who knew that a contemporary author could paint such a vivid picture of events that happened nearly a century ago -- in this case, the formation of the various health spas in the upper Midwest at the turn of the 20th century, which for those who don't know were the groups who accidentally invented our modern breakfast cereals? In fact, this is one of the things that Boyle is most known for as an author; for his meticulous and exacting research into whatever time period he is writing about, and whatever crazy events were happening during that time period. Now combine this with Boyle's ability to effortlessly jump between comedy and drama, his masterful touch as a story plotter, and a personal writing style that is both unique and never manages to call attention to itself, and you've got yourself one very admired and award-winning novelist indeed.

And of the eleven novels that Boyle has now written, arguably one of his best-known ones is 2003's Drop City, mostly because it's about the American hippie movement of the 1960s and '70s, of which Boyle was a part of himself in his own youth (having gotten his Bachelor's degree in 1968, for those who don't know). And yes, just like Wellville, this novel also features a semi-wacky concept to propel the story forward; in this case, it's about a group of young people who start their own "free love" commune at the end of the '60s (the aforementioned Drop City), which gets its start in California after founding member Norm inherits a large chunk of land from a recently expired relative. And yes, just like Wellville, Boyle uses this semi-wacky concept for both humorous and dramatic purposes; to sometimes viciously make fun of how unequipped most of these idealistic flower children are to actually "live off the land," while still legitimately admiring their desire to do such a thing, and arguing why such a desire is ultimately a good thing that all of us should at least partly aspire to.

And of course, this being Boyle, the fun doesn't stop there; about halfway through the book, in fact, the residents of Drop City get tired of all the hassles of being in California (the constant police harassment, the endless hippie mooches), and decide on a whim to move to Alaska instead, where Norm has access to yet more land owned by a relative, a grizzled fur-trapper uncle who has recently retired and moved to Seattle. And thus does Boyle get the chance to expand the story even further, by introducing the existing population of that small Alaskan town as characters themselves, and by hopping back and forth between the two groups' storylines until the moment the hippies actually get to Alaska and the plots suddenly merge.

In fact...(less)

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Apr 09, 2009 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who like a laugh & a challenge

Recommended to John by: a couple of friends

Shelves: american-novels-that-matter

Already a clear-cut five-star, even before I finish, TC Boyle's ripe and agitated revisit to the hippie extremes of the late '60s offers both a celebration and a slam. DROP CITY is the first novel of his I've tasted in a while; for years I'd sampled only the sharply-cornered ironies, their furniture often surreal, of his magazine fiction. Those always cracked the imaginative whip impressively, and trapezed their way through some breathtaking analogies, but this novel puts both those gifts on dis...more

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Apr 03, 2007 Conrad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

What to make of this book? It's two parallel stories about the 60s in Alaska. One: a hardy homesteader couple. Two: a bunch of hippies, "persecuted" by the law in Mendocino county, who decide to go back to the land, or at least drive a few thousand miles in a giant school bus and set up camp. No points for guessing which social experiment lasts longer.

It's a sort of unaffectionate look at the pomp and circumstance of the 1960s. I can certainly sympathize with Boyle's derision - it's been a few y...more

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Feb 08, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

TC Boyle's novel about the Northern California commune hooks you from the start. The carefree lifestyle, readily available drugs, open sexuality and irresponsibility of this motley mix of nature-loving misfits carries a heavy cost. Bills have to be paid. Toilets overflow. Young children are neglected. Freeloaders show up and take without giving. As I read the first part of the book set somewhere around Sonoma I recalled Peter Coyote's autobiographical Sleeping Where I Fall, about his own involve...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like tie dyed fur

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list

Shelves: 1001-books, brain-fluff, read-in-2012

This book is fuelled by flower power. Sadly I prefer books which are run on rocket fuel so this one did not deliver enough blast for my buck. This is the third TC Boyle book I've read and although I keep meandering back for more, I'm still yet to understand why.

Two tales make up the central thread of Drop City. Like two parallel spinal cords they prop up the floppy central core of the book. The first spine is the flacid, soaked in acid, hippy fuelled hurrah of Drop City. Most of the people resi...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Tikay Hill rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was very dissappointed by T.C. Boyle on this one. A sad depiction of communal living. Having lived in the midst myself, and visited other communes (intentional living places) all I can really say is his rendering is pure hogwash! I believe the man is a pig, he's lazy and lacking in ability to do proper research.

He seemed to find pleasure in making subtle innuendos using the norm of stereotypical stigma(s) in his writing. I found his book ridiculous. The stigma around the counter culture needs...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Bonnie Jeanne rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read T.C. Boyle's, Tortilla Curtain, which I did enjoy, though not love. Having now read two of his books, I think I might retire this author to my "Only If There Is Nothing Else To Read" list. Not that I didn't like this story, I did, but I don't think I could take another tale of good and evil and how easy it is to confuse the two. [return][return]One of the annoying things in this book is the author's tendency to use the given and hippie names of the Drop City residents interchangeably. I w...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Jeffrey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Drop City? More like Drop - alright I won't go there. Needless to say I was not pleased with this read. T.C. Boyle has apparently won prestigious literary awards. This is the only book I have read by him and it leaves me wondering how this is possible. Drop City is the story of a 20-something girl, nicknamed Star (ugh...), who joins a hippie commune in the early '70s in California that eventually chooses to pick up and move to their leader's uncle's cabin and land in Alaska. The book is simulta...more

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Nov 22, 2007 Yelena Malcolm rated it 3 of 5 stars

Drop City was a solid read. Tracing the journeys of members of a commune and the lives of those native Alaskans they encounter, the novel is both social commentary and strong narrative. Evocative both of communal living and the pioneering lifestyle, the prose was fluid.

More interesting, though, was the decidedly apolitical view of both lifestyles whch are outside the status quo. While pointing out the limitations of homesteading and relative anarchy, one never felt the author was lauding one cho...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-before-i-die

This book made me homesick for Santa Rosa. The story is about a hippie commune built just outside the city limits on the principal of "Land Access To Which Is Denied No One" [oft referred to in the story by the cumbersome acronym LATWIDNO] by the callow but good-hearted nephew who inherits a large tract of land. The commune members are eventually evicted from the county on the grounds of all sorts of fire codes, condemned buildings, and that everyone was too high to make a real latrine trench. >.>...more This book made me homesick for Santa Rosa. The story is about a hippie commune built just outside the city limits on the principal of "Land Access To Which Is Denied No One" [oft referred to in the story by the cumbersome acronym LATWIDNO] by the callow but good-hearted nephew who inherits a large tract of land. The commune members are eventually evicted from the county on the grounds of all sorts of fire codes, condemned buildings, and that everyone was too high to make a real latrine trench. >.> So they moved to Alaska! Where the living is easy and poop freezes. Pretty much the rest of the book is about the commune members and another native family who live nearby, and how a bunch of hippies learn to survive [or not] in the land of endless night. I really enjoy Boyle's writing, and the story was unserious and entertaining. It didn't really go into the politics of drop outs, except for some racial tensions within the group and the difficulty of crossing the Canadian border as a draft dodger in the latter years of the war, but it does present some of the Severe Logical Flaws of the typical hippie commune that made me want to tear my hair out. "Dropping out" of productive society so that you can collect cash aid and foodstamps does not mean you are subverting the dominant paradigm! It means you are lazy and leeching. There were also a couple of scenes that made me glare at the book - most notably one in which a mother knowingly doses her young children with acid, and is then shocked - shocked! - when there are problems resulting from this.
Anyway, the name 'Drop City' sounded deadly familiar but unplaceable to me the whole time I was reading the book, and I wondered if I had heard about such a place in Santa Rosa. It turns out the real Drop City was in Colorado, and was disbanded due to lack of interest, rather than facility codes, in 1977.
So it was a quick read with a fast-paced plot. Sometimes it was difficult for me to keep the characters straight, since they all had 'straight' names as well as 'drop out' names, like 'Pan' and 'Sky Dog', and the narrative POV shifts many times, but by the time the collective had reached Alaska, the personalities were well-developed enough to identify on their own merits. It also has a bunch of nekkid butts on the cover. Whee!(less)

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Mar 30, 2013 Geoffrey Benn rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book follows the residents of Drop City, initially of central California, and later of central Alaska, through about six months of trials and tribulations. Central characters are Star and Pan/Ronnie, who grew up together and moved west together, Marco, who replaces Pan as Star’s lover, Norm, the leader of Drop City, Sess Harder, an Alaska bush man, and Pam, his wife. The first half of the book looks at the conflicts that can arise in a communal living situation, particularly when drugs and...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Sarah Goodwin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book immensely, it had a great depth of flavor, layered description and character and style that made me forget where I was at the time. I found myself smelling the Californian dust while sitting in my car outside a supermarket, feeling the Alaskan cold while lying in bed. It's a rich book, confidently written, and filled with sentences that made my mouth water and my eyes burn with writers-envy.

I will definitely be reading books by this author again. I have always liked novels a...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Kara rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is the story of a hippy group and some Alaskan frontiersman and their little culture clash in the 1970s. (Fiction.) Really wanted to like my first Boyle book, but this just didn't work for me. He needs to go to sentence construction school. Some of his sentences were so poorly constructed (loves "and") that I had to reread to understand what he was trying to say, and even then I was just guessing. And he failed to make the characters distinct. Star, Merry, Lydia, even Pamela -- they all jus...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Sora rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first thing I did after finishing this book was to take a shower. I nearly stopped midway through to at least wash my feet and change my socks after reading this:

"Mendocino Bill broke the spell. He rose up off a crude bench by the stove, mountainous in a cableknit sweater his mother or his ex-old lady must have sent him, lifting his feet with the exaggerated care of a deep-sea diver wending his way between the killer octopus and the giant man-eating clam. 'Holy shit,' he said, 'look who it i...more

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Aug 07, 2012 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a howl if you lived through the 60's as a late teen/young adult...and if you are younger, you will probably still enjoy. I read this many years before Tortilla curtain, did not pay much attention to the author, but Jay Rosenbek gave me a couple of recommendations fro Boyle a couple of years ago.
Description from goodreads:
It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love, and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontier—the unforgivi...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Epic sprawling novel that although flawed, could be the book of the year and good enough for me to add the authors biblio to these pages.

The story is told in two intertwining parts. Part 1 is a hippy commune in San Franciso, charting the relationships and life their in all its glory.

The second story, which I enjoy more, is set in alaska at the furthest edges of america and has a woodsman, sess, meeting his would be wife pamela and the other cronies of the town, including his nemesis, Joe Bosky....more Epic sprawling novel that although flawed, could be the book of the year and good enough for me to add the authors biblio to these pages.

The story is told in two intertwining parts. Part 1 is a hippy commune in San Franciso, charting the relationships and life their in all its glory.

The second story, which I enjoy more, is set in alaska at the furthest edges of america and has a woodsman, sess, meeting his would be wife pamela and the other cronies of the town, including his nemesis, Joe Bosky. Sess and Joe are the opposite ends of the scale - Sess, not that far removed from the hippies plans of living of the land, opposed to the bad tempered and drunk bosky, ex us marine.

The hippy commune runs into trouble with the authorities, mainly because of lack of sanitation (the hippy dream is ruthlessly exposed in this book), so they decide to move lock stock and barrell to the leaders uncle's place, where they will be free from the man.

This, they are to an extent, although they are not free from nature. The savages of kill or be killed are brought into light here, again against the hippy ideal, as they have to fight of bears and wolves and kill anything just to eat.

Some of the writing is jaw droppingly good and although I dont think there is as much humour as amazon reviewers indicated, they is plenty of truth. Truth about relationships, people, responsibilities and nature.

The book is long and you have to consider how it is going to end. Its needs a great set piece to finish with.

And the book provides. By the end, the group has split into factions with the original peace lovers siding with Sess and the move selfish hangers on teaming up with Joe.

Joe and sess have had many minor run ins (killed dogs, stolen and trashed cars) and the end is told from both viewpoints as Joe takes pot shots at sess's dog train from his plane. The plane crashes and sess gets to the two survivors. One has managed to kill himself by drinking alcohol at -40 degrees and joe is barely alive and left to die, with his dying words, appropriately enogh - fuck you.

I said the book had flaws and the only one is the characterisation of the hippies. As they are all called stupid names and the book is written in a slight detached (only way I can describe it) way, its difficult to remember the back story and inter relationships between the many members.

This, however, is a minor complaint and the book at times, is brilliant.(less)

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May 17, 2012 Ajay R rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hippie - The word brings to mind a lot of images, many of them not flattering. In India too the word has mostly a negative meaning, even though India was one of the major points of the East meets West scenario that was happening in those days (for e.g. Beatles interacting with Ravishankar, their spiritual journeys through India etc). I daresay, R.D. Burman's excellent 'Dum Maro Dum' and it's picturization has had a great impact on the general mindset. The common opinion one has of this culture i...more
Hippie - The word brings to mind a lot of images, many of them not flattering. In India too the word has mostly a negative meaning, even though India was one of the major points of the East meets West scenario that was happening in those days (for e.g. Beatles interacting with Ravishankar, their spiritual journeys through India etc). I daresay, R.D. Burman's excellent 'Dum Maro Dum' and it's picturization has had a great impact on the general mindset. The common opinion one has of this culture is of free love, promiscuity, drugs, some new age spiritual mumbo-jumbo, in short a bunch of layabouts doing nothing except enjoying themselves. On the other side, the hippies saw themselves as some kind of counter revolutionaries, rebelling against the oppressive/consumerist society and the wars that were raging during that period. What is the truth actually? As in all cases, it would like somewhere in between. This hippie period and it's culture is the focus of T.C Boyle's novel 'Drop City'.

The story revolves mostly around the inhabitants of Hippie commune 'Drop City' in California. They try to keep themselves out of the 'straight' society as they call those who are integrated into the normal social fabric, but are forced to leave the commune as the Government takes over it. Meanwhile parallel to this narrative is another one where a young woman wanting to live as close to nature as possible marries a person in remote Alaska who himself is living in the mountains. In a way both the hippies and the young couple are similar in that both shun the modern life and want to back to their roots as it were. The head of the commune has inherited a land in Alaska (close to where the couple live) from his uncle and so the commune heads off to Alaska to make a new start. The rest of the novel is about happens there, their integration in a new place and the disruption it causes.

Boyle has made sure that the hippies are not caricatures and gives a balanced view of things. Yes, there are deadbeats, bums who just want to get high and be stoned always. But what were they before that? Boyle shows just a glimpse here through 'Star', a (so-called)normal middle class person, a teacher no less, living with her parents, whom one just cannot associate with the hippies, but one who was actually bottling up her feeling to such an extent that it had burst out one day and she gave up everything. In a few strokes, Boyle passes on to us the claustrophobia that a lot of us feel in our daily lives, just that most don't act on it, but some like Star do. The following paragraph shows us how Star felt hemmed in her home.
"When she got home at night she balled up her pantyhose in her own petite-sized pantsuits, flung them on the floor in her room and lay stretched out on the floor with a speaker pressed to each ear, staring at the flecks and whorls of the thrice-painted ceiling while Janis Joplin flapped and soared over the thunderous changes of 'Ball and China' "
Boyle has always been great in capturing the 'everyman' a person who is neither well integrated into society and nor given it up fully, always caught between the pull of the social normal and of the dangerous but more exciting counter culture. Sadly though, this strokes of characterization are few (which I will come to a bit later). Another thing to be noted here is that while the characters may be slackers for working in the society, they are ready to contribute their bit to the commune, whether it is cooking food, getting stashes of pot, building cabins etc.

Free love is one of the most quoted aspects of this culture, but Boyle shows that even here women were the ones who were victimized. In the guise of free love, men took advantage of women wherein a man could cohabit with multiple women, even forcing them sometimes for sex, in the name of love, making sure that he got what he wanted irrespective of the woman's choice. There is even a hint of jealousy (in Ronnie's character) when the woman he hooked up with, goes with another man. But again as in the case of characterization, this done in an almost off hand manner, somewhat diluting the impact it could have had.

This is event driven novel than a character driven one. The prose has a kind of somnambulistic quality to it which one could boring at times, but which is perfect when you think of the fact that most of the characters are stoned out of their minds most of the time and you are viewing the events through their eyes, in a glazed manner mostly in slow motion. Boyle has got the tone of the narrative pitch perfect. You always have a sense of foreboding while reading, a disaster just waiting to happen, a darkness hanging over the entire novel, whether it be for the inhabitants of the commune or the young couple at Alaska. In case of the commune it's a feeling that they will self-destruct, whereas in the case of the young couple it is a feeling that nature will finally get the better of them. That's another thing to be mentioned, the prose of the narrative arc of the couple is more clear without none of the hazy feeling. This is again in tune with their living in the wilderness where they have to be up on their toes always and cannot afford to lounge around hazily. Boyle works have always been environmentally conscious and here also this shows through in the loving way he describes the wilderness, the beauty and treachery it hides and the eternal fight of man to survive in it.

For all the things going for it, the novel ultimately remains an engaging one and does not take the next step where it consumes the reader. I am not saying that it's a bad thing to be only engaging, but there seems to be a lot of potential wasted or rather ignored here. For instance the part of the young couple is hanging outside the main core of the novel. Now, I try to follow Updike's tenet where he said the one should not criticize what the author didn't attempt at all, but only what he has done, but here I think I am justified in doing so. When a narrative arc takes up 30% of the novel and finally does not mesh with the overall structure you get the feeling that it's a wasted part of the novel. When the commune finally makes it way to Alaska, you expect a clash of cultures/ideals between the couple and the commune, one working hard to make a living, the other just wanting to take it easy. Because one thinks that was the point of having the 2 different narrative arcs. But beyond a few sporadic interactions (with an eye on plugging in the novel's end logically) it doesn't happen. You could have taken the part about the couple out and got a separate novella. The part about the hippies alone could have been enough, but I think Boyle wanted a counterpoint to their ideals in the form of the hard working couple, but somehow didn't go through it fully.

Another peeve I have about the novel is the characterization and I am going to play devil's advocate here. I do not feel that well rounded characters or coherent narratives are an absolute must for great fiction. Great fiction can have well defined plots/characters driving or it can be a narrative tour de force, heck it can just about be anything, how can one quantify it, I can just say what I felt was lacking here. One can read an entire Pynchon novel, come out of it not fully understanding what novel was about and still be consumed by it, one can read 1000 pages of 'Infinite Jest' on just ennui and happiness, with innumerable characters and burn in it's fever. Let's take 2666. Is it a complete novel, can't we treat the 5 parts as separate novellas, doesn't it just have a very thin thread(Archimboldi) running it's entire length and nothing much to link it. But can one come out of 'The part about crimes' without wanting to puke, your senses numbed by the violence after a descent through hell. How does that happen, can we just say that violence in that part was gratuitous and somehow it affected. Noway, this is where the narrative strength plays a part in either totally embracing the reader or just end up giving a hug (as in the case of 'Drop City'). The narrative hums along nicely, but never seems to reach the destination of total gratification. We enjoy the journey but at the end are left a bit dissatisfied. The major outcome of the lack of characterization is that the novel at 440 odd pages seems long at times and becomes sluggish. Because when you do not know about the characters and it's nearly 250 odd pages before the commune starts to Alaska you start to feel the length of the novel. There are not even small hints about the characters (like the para about 'Star' I have given earlier in the post) which the reader can fill in with his imagination. Its not like Boyle can't do it, but I think he has not wanted to do it. There is a 2-3 page portion when the commune is on their road trip to Alaska, where all the women are having a chat. In those pages, Boyle shows a side of them that was not revealed earlier and makes see them in a different light. Alas, this too is too short to make a lasting impact and that's what kills me about the novel. It promises much at several points but always ends up short. So what happens is whatever is mentioned about the characters, is too hazy for the reader to fill up and after a point he just gives up. When 'Pamela' the young lady who chose a husband to live in the wilderness says she is pregnant, you don't fell like 'how is she going to survive in this condition, how will this affect the dynamics of the couple's relationships, will she go back to her place leaving her husband' etc. It just doesn't hit you at all.

The lack of clarity on the characters does not have a totally negative impact, but indeed has a rather curious one. When certain events happen one does not think about why a character did that, his motives and how another character will be affected by it. Rather we think about it in generic terms. For example if X commits adultery, we do not think about why X did it or how Y is affected by it, rather our thoughts go to the general idea of adultery, it's prevalence in society, the reasons for it etc. This is not a bad thing at all, but in the context of the novel it doesn't help much, especially when your narrative is not strong enough to overcome the lack of characterization. Somehow this has been the case with the works of Boyle that I have read so far in the past 3-4 years. I have enjoyed all his works, but that's it, I have not been driven to read the next Boyle book after completing one. Whenever I come across a Boyle book I pick it up, but there has been no urgency from my end to read his works. Yes, it's a subjective opinion but the peeves I have put forth about this novel may be the reason for it.

Do not be put off by my cribbing about this novel. At the end it made me think of a couple of things. Once was about the hippies in general. Most of them would be in their mid 60's by now. So what happened to them after the party got over in the 70's, did they get assimilated into the 'straight' society that they hated so much, did they get jobs, got married and are now leading a leisurely pensioner's life. Or couldn't they let go of it and remained on the edges of society, a mostly forgotten lot now. Another thought was trying to place the hippie culture in current times in relation to our current lifestyle. The hippie culture being reactionary to wars, pressure of modern life etc would fit in perfectly with our times where in addition to wars, we have 'genocides'(several in the last decade itself) the pressure of modern life has increased manifold from the 60's, but why is there no revival of the movement or any other major counter culture movement. Maybe the hippies were misguided, slackers but they seem to have some vague concept of peace and love, however misplaced it may have been. But a generation later we seem to be beyond all that, the corporate gurus/swamis of today are playing a major here emphasising on the individual being happy, not feeling bad about whatever happens outside, just remove all traces of guilt about what you do. So people today still use drugs, but do it in the weekend rave party, have fun and on Monday get ready for another round of corporate warfare. The gurus do not solve anything, they just put off the bursting point for some more time but for now all are happy. And if any movement does start, the corporate-media coalition makes sure to block it out, like the 'Occupy' movements. Any book that gives you food for thought and raises uncomfortable questions about yourself is not to be ignored. So if you come across this book give it a try.(less)

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May 13, 2012 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those interested in the 70s, hippies, communes, Alaska

I really wanted to like this more and upon pondering all of the novels I have read by T.C. Boyle thus far, I am kind of wondering if I just started out with the one that had the most interesting topic to me, Talk Talk. Suffice it to say, I'd rather read about the frustrating experience of being a deaf woman in America and having your identity stolen then a bunch of hippies who move from California to Alaska and their adventures. Boyle always does enough research and he recaptures the energy and...more

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May 13, 2012 Lydia rated it 3 of 5 stars

So bizarre and random yet also kind of an underlying predictable plot line. The good characters have good things happen to them in the end, the bad characters get what they have coming to them. "Revolution" in some ways is the same old story of every group of people trying to live together and having to realize boundaries and rules and work are required for communal living. I did like that one of the characters with my same name had a nice chest, but I'm not sure I should like a book for that, e...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Yofish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-fiction

A hippie commune (in 1970-ish) is having trouble with the law, so decides to relocate to Alaska's wilderness-ish, where the head of the commune guy just inherited some land. Really, sort of parallel stories, one in the commune and one of a guy in Alaska who just 'acquired' a wife (she wanted to move out there, and interviewed several of the locals, looking for the right husband). But they don't intersect until halfway through a 500 page book. I guess that was needed, in order to establish charac...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Frederick Bingham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is the story of Drop City, a commune founded in northern California in the late 60's. There are about 30 hippies who take up residence in this community of free love, endless parties, drugs and dancing. The book follows three of the residents closely. Star and Ronnie (aka Pan) arrived together from Peterskill, New York. Marco came from southern California. Marco and Star start sleeping together and end up as a couple for most of the book, though this is a situation that changes from time to...more This is the story of Drop City, a commune founded in northern California in the late 60's. There are about 30 hippies who take up residence in this community of free love, endless parties, drugs and dancing. The book follows three of the residents closely. Star and Ronnie (aka Pan) arrived together from Peterskill, New York. Marco came from southern California. Marco and Star start sleeping together and end up as a couple for most of the book, though this is a situation that changes from time to time. Life in the commune is sometimes not as idyllic as it was supposed to be, like the time when a 14 year old runaway is raped by a couple of black residents. Or when Marco almost gets killed by the same guys in a fight. The rest of the members try to kick them out, but they are guilt-tripped into letting them stay. Finally, the local authorities move in and close the commune down, using bulldozers to take down the various shacks the reisdents have put up. As all of this is happening, a parallel story occurs. Sess Harder is a young trapper homesteading in the wilds of Alaska, 160 miles north of Fairbanks. He finds and marries Pamela, a sweet young woman who wishes for a life on the frontier with a man of the woods like Sess. Together they set up a home life on the Thirtymile River, a tributary of the Yukon River. The closest town, a squalid little place called Boynton, is about 12 miles downriver. Sess is happy and well-adjusted, except for a long-running feud with another local guy named Joe Bosky. While he and Pamela are on their honeymoon, Bosky kills Harder's dogs in front of his cabin. Having been kicked off their land in California, the residents of Drop City, led by a guy named Norm Sender, decide to uproot themselves and move to Alaska. Norm's uncle has just abandoned a cabin a few miles upriver from Harder. The clan piles into their hippie bus and it and a few other vehicles and make a caravan all the way up the Alaska Highway to the end of the road in Boynton. They get themselves and their gear hauled upriver to the cabin. They arrive at the height of summer, but know they must prepare for winter. So they get busy planting a garden, building extra buildings, putting up food, chopping wood, etc. The book details the clash of cultures between the hippie freak show and the real back-to-the-land ethos of Sess and Pamela. In the end, Drop City does make it in Alaska. Pamela and Star, and Sess and Marco become good friends. Ronnie falls in with Joe Bosky, and things do not end well for either of them. The book is also a story about adapting to a new situation, and dealing with Alaska and the incredible freezing cold and lonely winters. Narrated by Richard Poe who does an good job of portraying the different characters.(less)

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Dec 06, 2011 Christopher rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting look at communal living and the (natural and unnatural) forces that can turn "brothers and sisters" into enemies. The idea of hippies picking up and moving to Alaska to try and live off the land is subtly inventive and laughable as well as perfect for describing how those trying to live for the moment, such as the hippie-citizens of Drop City, slide into a balance between the "straight" world and living among nature as they always wanted. Boyle certainly knows how to weave...more

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Jul 07, 2011 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

My first TC Boyle read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. His depth of narrative, character development, and playful sense of plotting satisfyingly made real this story of hippies quickly losing their way at the tail end of their era. Free love sounds dumber and dumber. Dropping out of the contemporary world seems less and less possible. Humans bring their humanity wherever they go, no matter how far they attempt to travel - be it the outskirts of the Bay Area or the deepest outback of the Alaska's wi...more

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Apr 13, 2011 David Gillespie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Published in 2003, T. C. Boyle’s Drop City is a post mortem of early 70’s commune living. The story begins in 1970 in Northern California, as commune leader Norm Sender deals with keeping the commune running as the majority of his residents are only interested in the abundant sex, drugs, and food, with only a few true believers contributing to Sender’s mission. Eventually, due to both police harassment and some disturbing incidents in the commune, Sender pulls up stakes and moves the commune to...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Spike rated it 3 of 5 stars

If this were written by anyone but TC Boyle, I would've given it four stars, however I've come to expect better from Boyle. The basic plot is not overly complex. A hippy commune--Drop City--is chased out of California and decides to reincarnate in Alaska as "Drop City North". Overall, TC does a good job of bringing down the microscope on the whole hippy culture, the good and the bad. There are the innocents, idealistic dreamers, and the hustlers and layabouts who run their game under the guise o...more

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May 21, 2009 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Slightly off my own self imposed bizarre system of order to this task, I bought Drop City in London after totally underestimating how much I'd manage to read on my stupendously long train journeys this weekend (back to Edinburgh via Newcastle then Carlisle?! Riiiight). Drop City details the occurences when two worlds collide - that of the "drop out" hippies in California with that of the men of the forest in Alaska - men who live off the land, who inhabit a single roomed cabin throughout the lon...more

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May 22, 2012 Rommy Driks rated it 2 of 5 stars

I suppose a good summary of this book is "Thoroughly obnoxious and infantile hippies find themselves in Alaska. Hinjinks ensue." Perhaps I'm being childish, but when the most I can say about the characters is that they may be more interesting or sympathetic if a bear eats them, then I really didn't enjoy the book. I know much has been made of this author's writing style (and yes, he does know how to paint a picture with words) but it so did not make up for the fact I didn't care a bit about thes...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's 1970 and a newly evicted California dreamin' hippie commune tries their hand at free love in the Alaskan bush. Amusingly sketched characters (but not caricatures), concise and colorful depiction of place and time, Boyle delivers an entertaining story of Drop City's summer (and winter) of love.

A small dot on the Alaskan map is the setting for clashes and alliances between two disparate communities of people - although surprising parallels of self-reliance and non-conformity exist between the...more

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Sep 11, 2011 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, novels

The collapse of the sixties free love movement is perhaps the greatest defeat Western society has endured. The flower children believed in a world unshackled to government control and white-collar slavery, they believed in an autonomous collective of free love, drugs and sex. By listening to the Doors and smoking hash in Californian tepees, they hoped to bring about a social revolution, to overthrow the squares by doing nothing whatsoever. Then again, they only believed in this because their bou...more

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About T.C. Boyle

T. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948) is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eleven novels and more than 60 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a Distinguis...more

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“Who was she in high school? Little Miss Nobody. She could have embroidered it on her sweaters, tattooed it across her forehead. And in small letters: i am shit, i am anonymous, step on me. please. She wasn't voted Most Humorous in her high school yearbook or Best Dancer or Most Likely to Succeed, and she wasn't in the band or Spanish Club and when her ten year reunion rolled around nobody would recognize her or have a single memory to share.” — 1 person liked it

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