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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
This was one of those books I had heard of, but never knew exactly what it was about. (It ended up as required reading for a class on the History of San Francisco.) Turns out it's about the group of friends who started the LSD/hippie movement in the SF Bay Area in the mid-60s. The book takes you on an incredible (non-fiction) trip through some amazing stuff; things that you cannot believe they got away with. Highly recommended.
I read and loved this book in high school. I am pretty sure I told people it was my favorite book when I was between 15 - 18, although I also remember saying that about Franny and Zooey. Anyway, I don't think I will reread it for fear of ruining fond memories.
I did not like this book at all. Things that (I think) would have made this book more enjoyable: if I was alive during this era (I wasn't)or if I loved psychedelic drugs to the point that my life revolves around them (it doesn't). Honestly, I have a fleeting interest at best in the hippies/acid heads of the sixties, and this book confirmed why.
It took me a super long time to get through this book because, I felt, the writing was disjointed and hard to follow. I was bitching to my dad about the book (he was alive when it took place) and he said "well, it's definitely a period piece." So, again, I could see that if I was around when this stuff was happening or if I had more of an appreciation for the culture than I do, how I would've loved this book.
It was interesting to find more out about Ken Kesey. All I really knew was that he wrote and I loved "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." I didn't realize he was such a pioneer of the acid movement. I can't say that I necessarily agree with the path he took, but it was certainly an interesting journey. And that's the point, man, right? Like, the journey, getting where you're going not being where you're at? I'm totally zonked out of my gourd, brother man.
If those last three sentences annoyed you, you will probably resent this book as much as I did. Two stars..would have been one, but I did find myself compelled to finish the story because I started caring about the people in it (though I found them to be mostly foolish).
It took me a super long time to get through this book because, I felt, the writing was disjointed and hard to follow. I was bitching to my dad about the book (he was alive when it took place) and he said "well, it's definitely a period piece." So, again, I could see that if I was around when this stuff was happening or if I had more of an appreciation for the culture than I do, how I would've loved this book.
It was interesting to find more out about Ken Kesey. All I really knew was that he wrote and I loved "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." I didn't realize he was such a pioneer of the acid movement. I can't say that I necessarily agree with the path he took, but it was certainly an interesting journey. And that's the point, man, right? Like, the journey, getting where you're going not being where you're at? I'm totally zonked out of my gourd, brother man.
If those last three sentences annoyed you, you will probably resent this book as much as I did. Two stars..would have been one, but I did find myself compelled to finish the story because I started caring about the people in it (though I found them to be mostly foolish).
I was so into this book while reading it that I thought I was hallucinating ants crawling on the arm of a chair in a doctor's office waiting room. The ants were really there, but I was so completely in the book, I questioned my own psyche momentarily.
Updated in October 2014: This is one of those books that has stuck with me and returned over and over in my subconscious. What I think about and appreciate about this book is the perspective of an outsider immersed into a subculture and reporting on it without being overly reverent or derogatory. Tom Wolfe managed to be on the bus without being On The Bus. This is one of the few books I'll probably re-read at some point in my life.
Updated in October 2014: This is one of those books that has stuck with me and returned over and over in my subconscious. What I think about and appreciate about this book is the perspective of an outsider immersed into a subculture and reporting on it without being overly reverent or derogatory. Tom Wolfe managed to be on the bus without being On The Bus. This is one of the few books I'll probably re-read at some point in my life.
It might be time to re-read this one. I read it in high school
Managed first chapter and then gave up - one of the rare occasions I do that!
I read it at 21 and would have given it a 5 star review. Now all I kept thinking was "get a dang job and grow up."
This book made me feel as though I finally had some small insight into the sixties and the currents that shaped and still reverberated through the popular culture into which I was born.
It was also a blast.
It was also a blast.
Great history of an historical movement. I met Ken Kesey about 23 years ago at a Burning Man related "Anon Salon" event. I got on the bus.