A strange and salacious memoir of life at the ultimate hippie college during the height of Reaganomics
Opening its doors in 1970, Ha... read full description
Opening its doors in 1970, Ha... read full description
reviews
Jan 05, 2010
I never realized that "The Dicks" were "Hated". It was my experience that most people did not really think they were that important...just a group of people who felt they needed to give themselves an identity with a name, (who does that? Really?) and had to make a name for themselves by offending others...it was very pathetic. You could not help but to feel sad for them....Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is fairest of them all? Heaven forbid the mirror may speak truly, and
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Nov 07, 2009
Bettyx1138
rated it: 
I was around for much of what went on in this entertaining and endearing book ("Meg".)
Before reading it, I read in the promo blurb that the Hampshire student body hated the Dicks and friends. I was like, really? Its possible. No wait, I think I knew that at the time. Did I? No, that can't be true. I was scared to read it, paranoid that Rich would write something embarrassing about me.
Hampshire was comprised mostly of smart, dynamic, diligent students whose bra More...
Before reading it, I read in the promo blurb that the Hampshire student body hated the Dicks and friends. I was like, really? Its possible. No wait, I think I knew that at the time. Did I? No, that can't be true. I was scared to read it, paranoid that Rich would write something embarrassing about me.
Hampshire was comprised mostly of smart, dynamic, diligent students whose bra More...
Jun 01, 2010
Karen
rated it: 
Richard Rushfield’s memoir, “Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost” details his years spent at Hampshire College during the late 80’s/ early 90’s. I simply did not buy into his story at all. It felt like someone who was recalling a series of events that over the years grew more monumental in his own mind. I also think they are stories that are far more interesting to the people who were actually there, rather than the reader. I felt like I was reading a bunch of inside jokes that I just didn’t get.
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Mar 25, 2010
Elyssa
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I chose to read this book because I considered applying to Hampshire College, but instead went to Hampshire's public and West Coast equivalent, Evergreen in Olympia, WA. I started college during the same year as this author and was interested to read his perspective on going to a liberal and non-traditional college in the 80s.
Clearly Rushfield chose Hampshire for the wrong reasons because he had a hard time finding his niche. As he figured out a way to acclimate to the environment, More...
Clearly Rushfield chose Hampshire for the wrong reasons because he had a hard time finding his niche. As he figured out a way to acclimate to the environment, More...
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Aug 28, 2009
karen
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i am a moron. when i first signed up to win this from goodreads.com. i thought "yay - it will have stories of donna tartt and tales about what a douche bret easton ellis is/was", because my mind equated the entire state of new hampshire, including bennington, with hampshire college. and i am a new england girl, i even knew people (performance artists, naturally) who went to hampshire. so once my brain righted itself, i settled in to enjoy the book anyway. hampshire is an admirable conc
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Nov 20, 2010
Matthew
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This is a great book for anyone who tried to navigate the strange waters of 1980s college life (or for anyone interested in the same), where a kind of surreal 'political correctness' on many liberal-arts campuses reflected the equally surreal rise of Reagan conservatism in the country at large, and led to a kind of nightmarish disassociation of students who didn't really feel comfortable in either camp. (And resulted in some interesting artistic/musical gestures that could loosely be seen as fal
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May 30, 2011
Jenn
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I really thought I had reviewed this, but apparently not. I liked this book because I went to Hampshire College - which is a flimsy reason to like something, but there it is. I recognized and appreciated the mood & setting, it made me both homesick for the place and homesick for a time in my life. I would have to say that this is probably not the best written memoir I've ever read (pacing is awful) and I'm not sure that it would make sense if you don't understand Hampshire - but since I do, I
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Nov 01, 2011
Lennie
rated it: 
In 1986, Richard Rushfield left his hometown of Los Angeles and traveled to Massachusetts so that he could begin his freshman year at Hampshire, a liberal arts college. At first he felt lost being thousands of miles away from home but then he slowly began to adapt to this New England campus and eventually he started to hang out with a group of students who had a reputation for being misfits. Young, away at college and on their own for the first time, Richard and his friends skipped class, got d
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Dec 08, 2011
Mark
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Rarely do I fail to finish a book. However, I must say that this book is one for which I was happy to make an exception. The narrative, which is in fact essentially fiction, conforms to Dorothy Parker's dictum (and I paraphrase): "This is not a book to be set aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force." When I was a student at Hampshire, I avoided people like Richard Rushfield, just as I avoid them now.
And by the way, Hampshire is what you make of it. If you are im More...
And by the way, Hampshire is what you make of it. If you are im More...
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Apr 02, 2010
Jim
rated it:
Yes Kids, before facebook and the interweb we would gather & sit around and listen to albums not saying much to each other. At times we would go out and do something silly. I have always been interested in hearing stories about Hampshire which was the polar opposite of the 79 Babson business school that I attended. I glad Richard wrote this.
I enjoyed the book which was a funny and quick read.
http://www.richardrushfield.com/2010/01/...
perhaps this was More...
I enjoyed the book which was a funny and quick read.
http://www.richardrushfield.com/2010/01/...
perhaps this was More...
Dec 04, 2009
Pearl
rated it:
Sounded very intriguing and relatable for anyone who's gone to college: those first tastes of freedom, bonding with new and lifelong friends, discovering who you really are. But then Richard Rushfield decides to turn this memoir into one long stoner fest. The junkies that he hangs out with don't do much but lie around and talk about doing things. Seriously, an entire chapter is devoted to whether or not they should go to Denny's. No matter how "funny" their inertia or immaturity were s
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Oct 31, 2009
Iondot
rated it:
While there are a few amusing bits, the book suffers from a cloistered and somewhat dull viewpoint. This is a shame because this book could have been interesting.
The memoir recounts the writer's self-absorbed experience attending Hampshire College in the late 1980's. Twenty years later he doesn't seem to have much in the way of perspective on who he was or what was going on around him.
In short, he has nothing interesting to say.
The memoir recounts the writer's self-absorbed experience attending Hampshire College in the late 1980's. Twenty years later he doesn't seem to have much in the way of perspective on who he was or what was going on around him.
In short, he has nothing interesting to say.
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Aug 14, 2010
Jen
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I wanted to read this because one of my friends is in the book, so it did help me understand a bit where she was coming from. Overall, though, I wasn't crazy about the book. It did capture a certain tone/spirit that I know all too well, and brought up angst-ridden memories of my teens and twenties that I didn't especially want brought up. Maybe someone who experienced less angst in the '80s might enjoy this book more.
Jul 24, 2010
Patrick
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Hampshire College, hidden out in the woods of New England, is the liberal answer to any standard-issue southern Christian college and just as frightening. Imagine a place where forming a fraternity is actually considered a subversive act. I read Richard Rushfield's memoir of this college in the last half of the 1980s with equal parts humor and horror. Like some kind of gleeful imp, Rushfield set out to push the boundaries of the college's "It's all good" philosophy and in so doing, exp
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Sep 12, 2009
Robert
rated it:
Drugs, music, and an utter lack of institutional control or criminal prosecution corrupt a young man at an institution that lays claim to 'higher learning' in only the punniest sense of the word. Nevertheless as a psychological study of obsession, ennui and disassociation, this book will be relevant to many who get to college without a good answer to the question 'Why am I here?'.
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Apr 07, 2010
Dave
rated it:
Extremely entertaining but not exactly transcendent. Definitely a good read for anyone who attended a small liberal arts college and lived to tell the tale. While the Hampshire experience seems a little more extreme (and implausible) than my own as presented in this book, I definitely could relate to the various factions of students who claimed open-mindedness but frequently clashed with each other.
Nov 16, 2011
Jim
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the Mishima of Melancholy, Rushfield has cultivated a wonderfully insulting comedy of manners under the leaden skies of Northhampton Oblast during the addled eighties. This unbildungsroman really brought me back, unwillingly, to a time when mind could fool the body that it was having fun. I can't wait for the uplifting sequel, Guerrilla Acapella.
Jan 30, 2010
Stefanie
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To the author of "Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memorior of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the 80's": you entered Hampshire 15 years before I did, and yet everything you describe is incredibly familiar, if not of my own experience, then of someone I knew. Holy crap. Something things (or institutions) never change, as much as they try.
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Jan 12, 2010
Jane
rated it:
Loaned to me by a neighbor so I read it. Geez. The blurbs on the jacket say it is supposed to be funny but I found it not so funny at all. Kind of painful to read about the authors first years of college. I guess we all did our own version of being lost in those late adolescent years but crikey.
Sep 08, 2009
fishie
rated it:
I read the first half of the book and ended up just skimming the rest. I didn't really like the style--it seems like the author was trying too hard to be funny. It also just wasn't that interesting to me. Although the structure of Hampshire College was interesting, the story itself wasn't--it seem likes another story about college students wasting their time doing whatever.
The characters themselves were not very memorable and I did not develop a liking towards any of them.
The characters themselves were not very memorable and I did not develop a liking towards any of them.
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Jan 06, 2010
Sarah Emily
rated it:
If you attended Hampshire or spent any quality time there, you need to read this book. Otherwise, skip the damn thing. It reads a little bit like a justification of being a spoiled asshole, but if you know Hampshire at all, this spoiled asshole is a strangely fond memory.
Nov 22, 2009
Shana
rated it:
I enjoyed this book but it is probably only bc I was at Hampshire at roughly the same time. If you dont have the nostalgia thing going you'll probably find it not worth reading... probably for the same reasons you didnt go to Hampshire.
Sep 09, 2009
Claire
rated it:
I really, really want this book to be a movie, because I want to absorb the hilarious absurdity of Richard's book in more than one medium. This is the anti-college memoir, if you will, where those who suggest wet T-shirt parties are equated with fascists and rapists. It'll make you want to join a frat, even if you're a girl. I know this isn't a very helpful review but you just have to read it to enjoy it, especially if you have a hankering to read about an alternate universe where the put-upon
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Jun 12, 2010
Staci
rated it:
The jacket promises a good memoir, but the book does not deliver. Funny in parts but mostly boring stories about college students who really went to Hampshire to do nothing.
Jun 29, 2011
Pam
rated it:
Vanity Fair contributing editor Richard Rushfield describes his meanderings through the maze of college life in the mid to late 1980's.
Dec 29, 2009
Aaron
rated it:
A book about the humorlessness of a PC campus. Unfortunately, turned out to be not funny and also boring.
Jan 15, 2011
Courtney
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Wouldn't read it again, but it was an interesting glimpse into his life in college.
Oct 16, 2009
Inga
rated it:
Love it! It's a love song for a very crazy and special time and place.
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Nov 30, 2011
Read 84 pages and stopped. Rare for me, but I was just hating it: I kept thinking "it wasn't like that!" although maybe it was when he was there. I hope that sometime between page 84 and the end of the book, the author transforms from clueless slacker to creative and responsible human being (redemption! narrative arc!), but I was not compelled to find out for myself. Maybe I'll come back to it another time, but most likely not; I had my own experience at Hampshire, and there are too ma
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