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 frontie...
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Apr 26, 2010
Eddie
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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,
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Dec 17, 2009
Jason
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(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 on More...
(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 on More...
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Apr 09, 2009
John
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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 d
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Dec 16, 2009
Conrad
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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 derisi More...
It's a sort of unaffectionate look at the pomp and circumstance of the 1960s. I can certainly sympathize with Boyle's derisi More...
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Feb 08, 2012
John
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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 i
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Jan 25, 2009
Bonnie Jeanne
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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 interchang
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Apr 16, 2008
Jeffrey
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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 sim
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Nov 22, 2007
Yelena
rated it:
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 lau More...
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 lau More...
Nov 30, 2008
Tara
rated it:
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 latri
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Jan 14, 2012
Yofish
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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 cha
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Jan 01, 2012
Frederick
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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
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Dec 06, 2011
Christopher
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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 certainl
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Jul 07, 2011
James
rated it:
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'
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Apr 13, 2011
David
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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
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Feb 16, 2010
Spike
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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 t
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May 21, 2009
Becky
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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 th More...
Dec 07, 2011
Nancy
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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 exis More...
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 exis More...
Sep 11, 2011
MJ
rated it:
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
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Jun 30, 2010
GoldenjoyBazyll
rated it:
When most of us think about commune living in the 60's and 70's we think about peace- love and working together to develop a community with a higher consciousness. This book had a very interesting perspective and maybe a perspective that is closer to what life in such a setting might be like. Considering that when you take a random group of people and put them together and expect them to create marvelous things... the human condition lends itself to imprefections. Hummmmm sounds like the work
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Sep 17, 2009
Trisha
rated it:
Boyle has done a great job of recreating the hippie culture of the 70's, an era I remember very well. And so it was fun being able to look at it from a different perspective now that I'm 64 years old! The book starts out on a commune in California with a group of "cats" and "chicks" who spend most of their time getting stoned, listening to loud music and having sex with whoever happens to be available. Despite what they say about peace, harmony and love they are finding it d
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Feb 24, 2011
Krista
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Well written and thought provoking book highlighting problems inherent in any Utopian society (including our own idealistic 'American Dream'.) Since finishing the book I've been mulling over the ensemble cast of characters and admiring T.C.'s ability to paint rich landscapes and scenes. Boyle entertains me. The whole scene and all the "cats" and "chicks" really came alive. I was transported into all of its long haired, bad smelling, doped up glory.
The premise More...
The premise More...
Aug 02, 2011
Robin
rated it:
While I enjoyed reading Drop City, I'm having a hard time understanding why it's on the list of the 1001 books that I must read before I die.
The novel sets two groups in opposition in the interior of Alaska; a convent of hippies relocating from California and a group of homesteaders who are already established.
The story is entertaining, although the two groups are never really in opposition to each other. In fact, they have very similar goals and ideals - an escape from More...
The novel sets two groups in opposition in the interior of Alaska; a convent of hippies relocating from California and a group of homesteaders who are already established.
The story is entertaining, although the two groups are never really in opposition to each other. In fact, they have very similar goals and ideals - an escape from More...
Sep 17, 2010
Emily
rated it:
This 444 page novel, a gift from Ms. Shortridge, took me at least a year to read, while making way for textbooks, and curriculum reading, and other novels in between. But reading TC Boyle is like sucking on candy whilst reading. His style is so visual - each character's movement is completely fleshed out - but not in a Dickens this-took-three-pages-to-pour-tea-way, but a well thought out tasty economy of words. And the subject matter was highly interesting to me as a hardy Sourdough of an Ala
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Oct 24, 2011
Kirsten
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Sometimes when you are trying to express the worldview and interior, like, tone of your characters, it becomes necessary to write in the passive voice, and then you are writing all of the descriptions of action in the passive voice, and you are relying on that technique pretty consistently. And could it be repetitive? Is asking a lot of questions in a row something a hippie might do? Does that seem like a realistic trope? Yeah, man, because they've got a shaggy dog style of talking and think
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Jun 07, 2011
Juneau Public Library
rated it:
TC Boyle really nails the counter-culture scene here. For anyone who ever lived in a tent out at Fish Creek or in a dry cabin somewhere in Alaska, you'll get a kick out of the odd-ball assortment of characters that inevitably end up in Alaska at the end of one road or another.
I read Boyle's "The Road To Wellville" which is a historical fiction account of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Michigan "inventor of the corn flake and peanut butter, not to mention ca More...
I read Boyle's "The Road To Wellville" which is a historical fiction account of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Michigan "inventor of the corn flake and peanut butter, not to mention ca More...
Nov 11, 2011
Labmom
rated it:
Do I need to read 449 pages about hippies and mountain men (who aren't all that different) getting high and screwing in the California sun, excrutiating detail about trapping, killing, farming, sewage problems (yes, gross), getting high and screwing in the tundra? No, I didn't.
I thought this would be satire, the back cover led me to think so. And how could anyone take these people seriously - with their hyppcracy and body odor? But I guess the author did and his point was, I guess, that ev More...
I thought this would be satire, the back cover led me to think so. And how could anyone take these people seriously - with their hyppcracy and body odor? But I guess the author did and his point was, I guess, that ev More...
Jun 30, 2010
Liz
rated it:
By far the best book we've read for this club. I like the writing style overall, but was undone by the sheer number of similes!! The characters were well developed, though none made a change that I could tell, and that was the most disappointing part of the book. No Epilogue, nothing, and I never found a strong plot line. All that aside, I think it was a decent book and should give way to an interesting discussion at KIOSK!
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!
After several days, I have deci More...
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!
After several days, I have deci More...
May 24, 2009
Jeff
rated it:
I am almost obsessive about picking out extraneous language while reading novels, all the thoughtless barnacles of thought that cling to, and obscure, precision and clarity. Many times during my reading of this novel I stopped, looked away from the text and asked, "why would he say that?" finding that perfectly lucid passages were compromised by meaningless descriptors--dead words. Particularly annoying was "replete with" because that description has to correlation to any rea
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Jan 13, 2011
Nancyc
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I read The Women earlier in the year and was enthralled by Boyle. Drop City is just as masterfully told but is an uncomfortable story. That's the only way I can think of describing it. I think I was embarrassed by the characters' naivety. I lived on the cusp of this time, when running away and being a hippie seemed so romantic. Figuring out a new way, living communally with like-minded people, those were the attitudes in the air when I was growing up. Question everything. Reject the ways o
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Aug 16, 2010
Tom
rated it:
As usual T.C. Boyle wrote another amazing book. I like the complexity of his characters and how those interesting pople interact with their moment of history. I would describe this book as "Growth of the Soil" meets "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" meets "Call of the Wild".
This book was a somewhat harrowing narrative that deals with the conflicting and simultaneous states of enchantment and disillusionment of the Hippie movement. I enjoyed the complexity o More...
This book was a somewhat harrowing narrative that deals with the conflicting and simultaneous states of enchantment and disillusionment of the Hippie movement. I enjoyed the complexity o More...
