Drop City

Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle takes us back to a time some of our baby boomers may remember. We were going to change the world, drop out and tune in or some such gibberish: groovy, heavy man, or dig, that makes one laugh with nostalgic ridicule. This naivety of Boyle's California commune, the idea that if we all just share and love each other, indeed share sexual pleasures with one and all, share the toilet paper as needed, then a spiritual awakening, a Shaman of psychedelic force, drunken, pot induced vision would suffice for the dreariness of our father's world. This escape from the realities of the Cold War, Vietnam, and pre-pill sexual inhibitions led a cultural revolution, to experimentation and eventual failure. Human nature, the striving for me, flies in the face of communalism. This is why the Soviet Union starved its citizens, why Castro has to provide used needles in his squalid hospitals, why Socialist Europe has 10-14% unemployment and massive alcoholism. But Boyle's hippies don't know that yet and they head out for coveted freedom in Alaska only to discover squalor travels, and frozen winters kill.

Marco is a capable young man running from a minor confrontation with the law and his draft board. He learns to hunt and fish, build cabins in a harsh Alaska. Star is a twenty-something elementary school teacher that discovers pot, LSD, and hippy-dippy philosophy, so she runs away to California with local scam-boy-slacker, Pam. Pam offers Star around and she's to high to care. Their commune lacks toilet paper and toilets. Be careful where you step. The place is crawling with acidheads and fools. Star takes up with Marco, and the whole commune with the law on their heels heads for the interior of Alaska where they meet real backwoodsmen and women with a sense of practicality the hippies can't understand even if they were sober. The cold winter quickly pulls the summer of love to a close and then it's everybody for themselves.

Boyle seems to know these folks close up. Somebody had to prick the balloon of sixties excesses.

I first discovered Boyle when I read Water Music years ago, and initially was enthralled by his wittiness. His hipster irony struck me at the time as a new and very entertaining voice. I also recall that after the first two hundred pages the sensation, along with the plot, wore thin, and I look back on it now as an exercise in very clever but insubstantial fiction writing; I can't remember anything about it other than what I've just said. I then read Budding Prospects, found it somewhat less of the same. Picking up Drop City, I wondered whether he'd progressed. Yes and no.

A coming of age tale of hippies back in the day migrating to Alaska. It should come as a surprise to no one knowing this basic premise that this is a cautionary tale. And that's part of the problem. Boyle simply can't resist his impulse to riff on people's foibles. He's very, very good at it. Select any type and he can create a cartoonish character that illustrates its embarrassing character flaws. Here, his hippies are caricatures of how straight people viewed them back in their heyday. Every stereotype is here for the mocking--naive, dirty, self-indulgent, hypocritical. Sex all the time. Dope all the time (but only the cartoon hippie drugs--pot and LSD). It's as though he once had great affection for this segment of the culture--once was part of it--but later wanted everyone to know he'd outgrown it. As soon as you begin reading about the silly, drug-addled bunch, with names like Star and Sunshine and Sky Dog, you just know they're going to learn their lesson--and he's just the one to teach them, with a little help from Mother Nature.

So in that way, Boyle remains Boyle. But in truth, once I got past this, I really enjoyed Drop City. He's taken more care with the plot, and I wanted to see how he'd bring it all together. And he had something to say--although he may say it by presenting a series of cheap shots--about character. Although the players he doesn't much respect are, as ever, more finely drawn than the characters he does, he does try to show us what he considers the more admirable sides of human nature; all is not ridicule. He creates some characters with depth and humanity that we feel we might like to meet, and we miss them when they're gone.

I also enjoyed his descriptions of Alaska. I wouldn't know, but he seemed to have done his research, and I at least imagined I was learning some interesting information about life in a place I've never been.

TC Boyle is a wonderful writer. His text leaps off the page and paints vibrant pictures for your mind. The problem is that this books pictures are simply boring - well realized and with pretty colors, but still of boring subjects.

I wanted to like this book. I really did... But good writing has to be backed up by either an interesting plot or fascinating characters (or, better yet, both). This book has neither and I found myself forcing my eyes to continue reading. You can miss this one and not miss much.

This is an amazing book! The characters were so involving that I couldn't put it down, but now that I've finished it, I have SO much to think about. I have to agree with others, this is my favorite T. Coraghessan Boyle book yet. READ IT NOW! And give it to all your friends, so you won't be in the position I'm in now: I can't wait to talk about all the relationships and implications, and the number one greatest death scene I've ever read.
Ultimately this book is just a great read. There is also social commentary, but it is sophisticated. I don't think, ultimately, that TCB lampoons his hippies. Marco? That guy rules. Star? She's smart and loving and idealistic, and she's also strong and hardworking and forgiving. Pretty awesome girl. But, of course, not everyone in every group is the cream of the crop. Some of the hippies weren't as smart, some weren't as nice, some weren't as successful . . . just like some feminists are smarter than others, and present feminist ideals more clearly than others, just like some Christians are more open-minded than others and embody the spirt of their text more fully than others, and so on. To me, this is the most sophisticated, complete and HUMAN way to show a group -- especially one who's ideals and daring brought us, oh, civil rights and feminism and anti-conformist values, and successful counter-culture and anti-war protests and of course, sex,drugs&rocknroll. Just because the hippies didn't change every mind, they hardly failed. Which is how, I think "Drop City" presents the story. Indiviuality, one of the staunchest hippie ideals, whether hip (Marco&Star) or square (Pamela&Sess)is rewarded and celebrated -- since both couples uphold true hippie goals and not just the neo-hippie stuff we're so used to seeing. This here's authentic. The real deal.

Hmmmm...Have you ever wondered what would happen if a commune of hippies wore out their welcome in California and made an ill-advised decision to move to the backwoods of Alaska where nobody would bother them? Me neither. But if you read this book you'll find out.
I found the characters and their interactions interesting and enjoyed the writing style. And not knowing much about hippies (before my time) I found the ebb and flow of communal life fascinating. As for plot, - well there were a few loose plotlines, none of which seemed to be more important than any other. And most of them went unresolved, possibly because the book ended in what any ordinary reader would think was the middle of the story, - almost as if the author lost interest half way through and decided to write a ten-page wrap up and move on to his next book.
But even though the plotlines seemed fairly inconsequential, I zipped through this story quickly and enjoyed it.
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Drop City is a highly entertaining book, but IMHO T.C. Boyle could easily have done even better. First of all the book seemed too short, the plot somewhat unbalanced. In the first half of the book we get separate introductions to the hippies in their original Californian habitat and the eccentric inhabitants of Boynton, a frontier town in the interior of Alaska. This covers about half of the whole book - it takes the hippies almost 240 out of more than 444 pages before they even arrive in Alaska. For my taste this was way too long. Plot-wise not too much happens - in California hippie heroine Star finds a new boy-friend, in Alaska two of the main characters, Sess and Pamela, get married. (There are several sub-plots, though - including a mother feeding her children LSD)
In contrast to the laid-back first part of the book the second half moves at a very quick pace - The ending is violent and comes about 100 pages before it should have come, given the lengthy first half. (Another reviewer wrote the same thing and I agree with him)
My second complaint is that the characters seemed one-dimensional. The central characters are two women that seem to be simultaneously pretty, intelligent, independent and caring.Their two male companions are almost as likeable, but less good-looking. Their opponents are two very evil guys - immediately recognizable as such.
Thus the outcome seemed predictable - even though the plot takes a number of typically Boylesque twists and turns.
Still I liked the book a lot - it's very funny and some of the characters are very credible. The description of the Alaskan wilderness almost made me feel the mosquito bites and the intense cold.

This is a wild book about extreme times and places. A hippie commune in California in 1970 is the center of the opening chapters viewed through the eyes of Star (AKA Paulette from a small town in NY), Pan (AKA Ronnie from the same place), Marco, and Norm, the founder of the commune and owner of the "Ranch". We see things at a very personal level as the novel unfolds. Within a few chapters we are abruptly in Alaska in a remote outpost seeing life through the eyes of Sess Harder who is making a go of life as a trapper-- no combustion engines or electricity. He has a trap line he "mushes" (uses dog team). He is in the market for a wife and has his sights set on one, Pamela, who is of like mind. Here is also a story of the hippie with a twist, the Alaskan who eschews the hustle bustle of modern life for solitary and simple life in the wilderness.

The story really takes off as Norm decides to move "Drop City" to Alaska. This stirs up everything including the Alaska wilderness dwellers and their little town. The stories intertwine as the hippies work at making a go of it in an unforgiving country. Conflicts and tension build, especially as winter, the months-long night, and extreme cold take their toll.

For some of us who were "into" the hippie "thing", this is a wonderful and painful review of an historic period with long term effects. For me, an aging woulda-been-a-hippie-if-I-coulda, it gives me an opportunity to live the part in its extremes vicariously. Humorous as well as pull-no-punches hard nosed, the novel includes diverse feelings and scenes: the warm flowing cycle of daily life, relationships, and nature mixed with the smelly life of hippiedom. Love in all its flavors and colors flows abundantly.

The writing style is a little off-putting for me. Sentences of endless metaphorical admixtures are usually a plus for me. In this case they seem overdone. Sometimes it is hard to connect the subject, verb and object. Here is an example:

p. 21

Merry's back was to him, the spill and sweep of her hair that floated on its own currents, the white knuckles of her hands as she lifted cans to the shelves, sun pregnant in the windows, the potted herbs uncurling like fingers and a cat (a feline, that is) Marco hadn't noticed till that moment lifting its head from its perch atop the refrigerator to fix him with a steely yellow-eyed gaze.

Fortunately, there are the terse action oriented sentences as counter balance.

All in all I heartily recommend the book for anyone-- hippies, would-be hippies, wannabe hippies, and anyone wanting to be entertained or having their understandings broadened. There is some extraneous stuff, but Boyle knows what he is talking about and describes it with spirit.

Boyle provides us with a wonderful realistic inside view of the warts of 1960's communal living. We've been dished up rosy back to the land paeans and conservative diatribes blaming the fall of western civilization on hippy culture but we have precious little insight into the complicated day to day reality. Boyle can be counted on to focus his take-no-prisoners microscope on how us humans acted, well, so human, in the 60's. Boyle talks about being writer in the rock and roll tradition and there is that exuberant kick out the jams element in his writing. And I like how he mixes his dark and light palette and this novel is no exception.

It was jarring however to come across so many anachronisms in the novel. Did Boyle do that on purpose or did the editors really miss the boat? I'm talking about references to Tofutti, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Red Zinger, none of which existed in 1970, when the novel is set. Also, K-Mart only had a few stores at the time and I don't think tofu was that readily available.

Great story, well written. The only drawback and why it did not receive 5 stars is because it was sometimes like reading two different books because the author kept switching back and forth between the hippies in California and the Alaskan folks living off the land. The story does converge eventually, but in the meantime, it was a little hard to keep finding a connection between the two groups until they meet up in the end.

I enjoyed the set-up of this novel, the characters, the commune, the pending move to Alaska, etc., but unlike other reviewers, I found this book to be a big fizz. The whole subplot of Sess v. Joe Bosky is contrived and unnecessary to the topic or novel, while the situation between the commune members doesn't seem to go anywhere or offer any new particular insights after they leave California. Like a previous reviewer, I too was hoping to lose some of the cynicism and find a meaningful ending, but alas I was disappointed when i finished the text, and won't recommend this book to friends. What would one say, beyond "free-love, drugs, and communal drop-outs moving to Alaska"?

I came into this novel with the highest of expectations since Boyle's Tortilla Curtain is one of my favorites. I must say that I was disappointed - for me, it fell short, lacking much of the sincerity and suspense that Tortilla Curtain was filled with. True, there was tragedy (and not a short supply), but I felt the story became predictable and the some of the characters became caricatures of themselves.

Just as he does in Tortilla Curtain, Boyle writes Drop City through the minds of different characters, namely through three hippes (Pan, Star, Marco) who, with the rest of the Drop City inhabitants, decide to move to Alaska, and two Native Alaskans (Pam and Sess) who live in the area that the hippies invade. Though I found that some of the characters in Drop City had me disinterested, I felt a great connection with Pamela and Star and enjoyed watching their relationship develop. Boyle, as a writer, does a beautiful job of intricately paring words so that the reader is able to get a feel for the scene â€" whether he is describing a rising sun or the building of a cabin, it feels as though this object is as important to this scene as one of the main characters.

Much of my disappointment, I realize, comes from subconsciously comparing Drop City to Tortilla Curtain. Unfortunately, most of my enjoyment of Drop City comes more from Boyle's writing style, humor, and use of irony, than the actual novel itself. Though Drop City is not the best depiction of T.C. Boyle’s narrative abilities, it is still a great showcase of his talent with words â€" in a second I recommend reading T.C. Boyle, but instead of reading Drop City, however, I recommend Tortilla Curtain.

Several years ago, I saw Welsa Whitfield perform show tunes and torch songs at a cabaret. She sang arch renditions of sentimental ballads, drawing out the emotion in the songs and mocking it at the same time. Her act didn't really cohere because you can't have it both ways. You can't be ironic and sincerely poignant at the same time.

This same issue - the messy conjoining of irony and sincerity - affects much of T.C. Boyle's fiction. Boyle is probably the most talented of the Boomer-generation fiction writers. He can do novels of epic sweep as well as pointillistic short stories. He's a fiendishly imaginative plotter, a supple stylist, and can assemble big casts of eye-catching characters. And he's laugh- out-loud funny. Boyle is also the most frustrating writer of his generation because he uses all this talent for the ironic take, the quick score, the easy laugh. Capable of being our Dickens or Balzac, the writer who defines his time, he mostly settles for being a deft satirist.

Which brings us to Drop City. The plot is straightforward enough. A group of hippies wear out their welcome in Sonoma County, California. Their leader, the quasi-charismatic Norm, owns some land in Alaska his uncle left to him. The hippie cavalcade moves north, where their goofy communal hedonism smacks up against the harsh realties of life in the Alaskan bush. The counterpoint to the hippies is a young trapper, Sess Harder, and his new wife Pamela. Sess and Pamela befriend the hippies, and the lives of the hippies and the locals mingle with some comic and some tragic results.

There are easy targets here, and Boyle hits them without overly straining himself. He skewers the Love Generation's meretricious idealism, greedy intake of flesh and illegal substances, the chaos of communal egalitarianism. The epiphanies are pretty straightforward too. Star, one of the hippie chicks whose consciousness Boyle drops us into, figures out that sexual liberation is a better deal for the guys than the girls. Her boyfriend, Marco, realizes that pleasure-seeking self-indulgence isn't such a great survival strategy when the larder is low and winter's coming on.

This would have been news around 1971. But Drop City was delivered to us in 2003. If it's history we're dealing with, Boyle might have given us a deeper look at the motives of his patchouli-scented tribe. Beneath the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of that era, there did exist a meaningful critique of the spiritual emptiness of suburban American life. That critique generated a mass movement that put the best and brightest of an entire generation out on the road, searching for something better. Enormous effort went in to developing alternative structures and processes; it wasn't all comic or misguided. Had Boyle given his hippies more depth of motivation, their commune's demise would have been more resonant, or at least more poignant.

But Boyle doesn't do poignant. What we get in Drop City are some funny riffs on hippie pretentiousness, some strong descriptive writing about the Alaskan bush, and a story that's clever enough to keep you turning the pages. Read it, enjoy it, and you'll probably stop thinking about the characters ten minutes after you put it down.

All of Boyle's novels offer at minimum a fun ride. He moves nimbly around the American landscape and has a fine eye for the ridiculous. Budding Prospects deals with a later era of Northern California pot smokers. The Tortilla Curtain, a look at illegal immigrants in Southern California, is almost great, but he just had to drop in his patented hipster irony. A Friend of the Earth is an imaginative ecological dystopia. The Road to Wellville is about nineteenth century utopians who preached truth and salvation through cereal grains instead of lysergic acid diethylamide. World's End won a Pen/Faulkner award.

Boyle is also a deft short story writer. You can catch most of them in TC Boyle Stories. Pay special attention to the story "If the River Was Whiskey." It demonstrates the kind of power Boyle can achieve when he lets a little emotional sincerity seep into a narrative. That particular story is a standard he should hold himself to, instead of squandering precious writerly juices on five finger exercises like Drop City. Here's hoping that Boyle, as he rounds into the final turn of his productive career, will use his immense talent to rise to the greatness of which he's capable.

When I first started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. Boyle strings words together more beautifully than any writer I've encountered, and I found myself falling in love with each sentence on the page. He provides great visuals of the land that embodies the Drop City commune, at times bringing the sun or trees to life as if they were characters themselves. Some of the Drop City hippies seem so flat they could become caricatures of themselves, until Boyle is able to color them with nuance to keep them real. Star, Ronnie, and Marco (the three central characters) are described so vividly and so uniquely that I was able to visualize them with ease-not just how they looked but how they spoke, moved, and thought.

Unfortunately, as the original group from Drop City South disintegrated up North, so did my interest in their story. The relationships seemed predictable and the conflicts, stale. By the end, the excitement of the drugs, music, and free love fades. This was most likely Boyle's intention, since the book reads not as much a piece of nostalgia as a criticism of this lifestyle. Boyle does a good job of pointing out the hippies' hypocrisy, selfishness, and somewhat fake ideals, but he makes this point very early on and doesn't need to continue it as long as he does.

Upon having been recommended "Drop City" numerous times by various people, and then having it assigned in English class, it was sort of a no brainer to pick it up. In this sense, the book came to ME with a great deal of hype, and needless to say I was excited to read it. Initially, the book met or exceeded my high expectations. The first half of the book hit me on a gut level, as we are introduced to our setting, the Drop City hippie commune (in Northern California), and meet our 3 main characters: Star, Pan (Ronnie), and Marco. In each chapter/section of the book Boyle may be writing from any one of these characters' viewpoint, exposing similarities and differences not only between the co-narrators but also in their opinions of the commune, each other, and the colorful supporting cast of characters. They are all similar in that they question the trueness of Drop City and its members, they wonder at certain elements of hypocrisy that arise (racism within the commune, the sexual double standard), they all feel sometimes that they are outside of the Drop City sphere, that they do not belong or completely believe in the nature of it's existence. Marco and Star have more in common in that they question only with good in mind, they are truly trying to believe in Drop City and their brothers and sisters. Ronnie however, seems never to truly believe in the movement, and is only there so that he doesn't have to work, can do all the drugs he wants, can open up his sexual opportunities, and just because its the hippest scene. He is a mental loner who depends on others but drags them down in the process. The concept of multiple personality, of "Ronnie" (his true self) and "Pan" (the identity he invents for himself) is interesting, and gives his character a certain phoniness and cowardliness that make you detest him. The book truly changes directions, not necessarily for the better, with the introduction of two more narrating characters: Sess Harder, an Alaskan trapper, and his love interest and soon to be wife Pamela. While I truly didn't dislike these characters, I had difficulty connecting to the backwoods aesthetic that they preach. When the hippies pack their bags and head for Alaska (in an effort to escape authorities closing in on the commune) I couldn't help but think that the transition from setting to setting was sloppy and uninteresting. When the commune arrives in Alaska, every character in the book began to disappoint me, and in the second half of the book I began to dislike the characters that had originally connected with, even the ones Boyle probably intended to be the protagonists (Star, Marco, Sess, and Pamela). In the first half the "villain" so to speak was an abstract idea, "the man", the authorities, the government. When we actually get real personified villains in Joe Bosky, and Pan (Ronnie) to some extent, it takes away the mystique. I initially enjoyed this book, and wouldn't call it a wasted read. However, it just could not deliver on the solid foundation it begins with.

I was interested in this book immediately. The book was well written and initially the characters seemed to have depth and reality. As the plot developed, some became one dimensional, very good or very evil. A co founder of a commune in Sonoma County wrote to the SFChron "Boyle took the most tragic occurences at various nearby communes... and created a Zap Comix version of alternative living that every body will just love to hate....Living close to nature is the best therapy one can receive, especially surrounded by loving and accepting brothers and sisters....Someday an author will write a truly inspiring novel about the communal movement..."

Several years ago I read 'The Tortilla Curtain' by T C Boyle. It was a very enjoyable book. I felt the main character was developed. I felt for the guy. The story had weight, significance, meaning, power.

Later, I read 'Riven Rock'. It stunk. It was a root canal. I should have written the author and asked him, 'why are you doing this to me?' The book was way too long. Words were spent on the characters which failed to give them full dimensions. The author had some simple minded point which should have been fully explained in a few pages and yet he felt he should use a book to thoroughly beat it into the reader's brain.

I read Drop City because I really needed a book and the taste of Riven Rock had dissipated. I finished the book, because, like I said, I really needed a book.

The characters are really shallow, sophomorically shallow. This book examines the counter culture like a J Edgar Hoover memo explains communists. And the author does even less well in his portrayal of mainstreamers. By the end of the book, I am left with the thought that this guy, the author, needs to get out more.

As a reader, I am usually satisfied with whatever the ending may be, and not too curious about what happens next. With Drop City, I felt as if I was dropped off in the middle of a great tale even though it ended satisfactorily. I wanted more! What happened next? Too bad T.C. doesn't write sequals.

From a brilliant but sometimes erratic writer, his best book ever. Some of the flaws that mar his earlier work are gone entirely. Loved this book and raced through it. True to life and history (I was there -- b. 1944) about the Sixties. A great read, and worth a thousand precious little MFA workshop "my childhood was unhappy and then my thesis advisor was mean" whiners. Loved it!

I'm in mourning. I finished Drop City last night and no longer can I journey to Alaska to be with TC Boyle's richly developed characters and the dramas they're caught up in. TC Boyle had to have been in a commune in the 60s to write with the insight he has. As someone who has abandoned an idealistic lifestyle in order to meet the practical necessities of family life, I found this book vindicating.

Boyle rivals John Steinbeck's ability to create characters who would frighten and repel the average reader, and then make that reader care about the fate of those characters. This story taps all of Boyle's best talents.

I find nothing more entertaining than reliving my childhood stories vicariously through others. Thanks mom, for not joining a commune despite embracing all the rest of it! Now I know what might have happened, if...

I can see where this book might entertain readers who tuned in and dropped out in the 60s. I was a little old for the Haight Ashbury experience. The book had no appeal for me. Even though it's received good reviews, I found the writing puerile, with clichés strung together like cranberries and popcorn. Here's a passage chosen at random:

"And two minutes later he was in the back house and there were six or seven cats sitting around listening to Marvin Gaye out of a battery-powered portable stereo with a blown bass, thump, thump, blat, thump, thump, blat. Sky Dog was there, cradling his guitar, somebody had lit a couple of scented candles because there was no electricity in the back house, and there was a new girl there--a chick--and she couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen. A runaway. What was her name? Sally. Where was she from? Santa Clara. And what was her father like? He was a son of a bitch."

The writing was embarrassing and made my toes curl.

I was pleased to discover others felt the same about the book that i did. The miute i began reading i was hooked and intriqued by Boyle's writing style. NEver once did the length daunt me and before i know it i was 2/3 the way through the book. The multiple perspectives added a great depth that many authors attempt but fail to accuratly control. Boyle is perfect and i want to know as much as i can about Sess, Pamala, Star, Marco and the other occupants of Drop City North. The Karmic retrebution at the end was the most perfect closing i can imagine, especially for a life of peace, love and selfishness.

As a (still) 20-something, I find it amusuing that many of the the store reviewers critize this book because it doesn't portray the 1960 culture they participated in or remember. Who cares???

I found this book to be hugely interesting, entertaining, and fun. I was totally taken in by the characters. T.C. Boyle is a great writer who realistically portrayed two widely disparate cultures and brought them together in an absolutely remarkable and unforgettable yet totally believable situation. I absolutely recommend this book.

Highly readable, with great character and scene set-ups. With the exception of The Road to Wellville, Boyle has consistently delivered winning fiction (as opposed to literature). This is fun, intelligent stuff; not profound, perhaps, but it doesn't pretend to be, either.

This book was very entertaining and illustrative of reality of the "hippie" era. It was a compelling read with a lot of flavors of the time. It was not politically or racially charged, as one would expect from a book reflective of that period. It delved into the life of a commune - the view from within. I liked the descriptive elements of the book and the story was satisfying.

Wonderful, unforgettable and near perfect. I've been reading and rereading TC for years, and I simply love this book. No overt ideology (which mars "Tortilla Curtain"), just enough research (his novels are beautifully researched -- see "Road to Wellville") and plenty of heart. Ended far too soon.

Most of the story line for this book was actually the story of the Morning Star Commune, the charters, plot everything. I though there was something fishy so I did a search and found the Diggers web site and therein was the bio of the two communes that T.C used for his book. I don't know about the end of the book, very lame ending and could have been ripped from an actual even also. This was a lazy writing effort. Go to the Diggers web site and get the real story.

I first discovered Boyle when I read Water Music years ago, and initially was enthralled by his wittiness. His hipster irony struck me at the time as a new and very entertaining voice. I also recall that after the first two hundred pages the sensation, along with the plot, wore thin, and I look back on it now as an exercise in very clever but insubstantial fiction writing; I can't remember anything about it other than what I've just said. I then read Budding Prospects, found it somewhat less of the same. Picking up Drop City, I wondered whether he'd progressed. Yes and no.

A coming of age tale of hippies back in the day migrating to Alaska. It should come as a surprise to no one knowing this basic premise that this is a cautionary tale. And that's part of the problem. Boyle simply can't resist his impulse to riff on people's foibles. He's very, very good at it. Select any type and he can create a cartoonish character that illustrates its embarrassing character flaws. Here, his hippies are caricatures of how straight people viewed them back in their heyday. Every stereotype is here for the mocking--naive, dirty, self-indulgent, hypocritical. Sex all the time. Dope all the time (but only the cartoon hippie drugs--pot and LSD). It's as though he once had great affection for this segment of the culture--once was part of it--but later wanted everyone to know he'd outgrown it. As soon as you begin reading about the silly, drug-addled bunch, with names like Star and Sunshine and Sky Dog, you just know they're going to learn their lesson--and he's just the one to teach them, with a little help from Mother Nature.

So in that way, Boyle remains Boyle. But in truth, once I got past this, I really enjoyed Drop City. He's taken more care with the plot, and I wanted to see how he'd bring it all together. And he had something to say--although he may say it by presenting a series of cheap shots--about character. Although the players he doesn't much respect are, as ever, more finely drawn than the characters he does, he does try to show us what he considers the more admirable sides of human nature; all is not ridicule. He creates some characters with depth and humanity that we feel we might like to meet, and we miss them when they're gone.

I also enjoyed his descriptions of Alaska. I wouldn't know, but he seemed to have done his research, and I at least imagined I was learning some interesting information about life in a place I've never been.

this book MUST have been written by a committee - i was going to give it a 2 star till i was agog at all the praise being lavished - you know you are in trouble when you start skiiping whole paragraphs - and them whole pages before halftime -

for the details - the other 1 star's have covered it well--

do not bother to hack through this one--

Maybe if you were there and have fond memories of the drugged-out, young life of a hippie commune, you will relate to this book. Otherwise, you probably won't want to bother. It's hard to care much about the characters who are mainly spaced out on dope, groping for instant gratification, and don't give a hoot about much of anything else. If this was "fun", I'm afraid I miss the point.

Wow. What an author. Boyle's characters are compelling, diverse, real, full and believable. The story captures the landscape very well, populated with nature and humans. The story is engrossing and entertaining while still containing beautiful examples of good writing. Boyle never falls into writing in cliches and his similes and metaphors are imaginative and unique. One of the best novels I've read all year.

An excellent perfectly told story. But what is it about ? A hippy commune in California is under the menace of being ousted by the local court and the sheriff. They move to Alaska, to extreme conditions of survival. This brings out the psychology of every character and it is not very flattering for some. Extreme survival conditions reveal the hidden face of each one of them and some of these revelations are absolutely devilish. They are also set in parallel with a young couple that makes it a real trade and adventure to survive in the best conditions and yet without getting into extreme hatred or survival strife with their neighbors. This couple is like the measuring rod to evaluate the hippies. The book reveals that you need to be particularly hard working in such condittions and this reveals those who are hippies to escape any discipline. They become parasites and very fast they start living on the back of the others, without working really and going as far as stealing, and then they drop out before being rejected. Then you have those who cannot bear anything slightly hard and these will eventually drop out. Here there is a touch that bothers me : one of these is a black man, the only black man who manages to follow the commune to Alaska. It reveals open racism among the locals there but it also contains, symbolically, a racist rejection of the character and since he is the only black he becomes the representative of his racial group and that verges onto symbolical racism. Finally you have those who are going to prefer some sentimental attachment to the hardship of living through the Alaskan winter and night. This is the case of the « guru » who owns the land and leads the others to Alaska but he leaves before the winter arguing that his girlfriend, who is no hard-struggling group-minded survivor, is sick. Extreme conditions are the revealing touchstone for all of them and few are those who will go through the adventure and the hard works it entails. Pessimistic in a way, it is also optimistic by the simple conclusion that in such conditions some will be able to cope and some will not be able to cope. Hippyism is easy in California, an easy way to live on the back of others, particularly on the women's back (if I can say so) concerning the men, but this parasitism leads to plain antisocial attitudes or dropping out back to society for some of them. The book is in a way an illustration that humanity needs a challenge, needs extreme conditions to reveal itself, but it is not clear about the fact that some of the survivors will survive on the bodies of many victims of their pushing. Enjoy the book.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU