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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Tom Wolfe did an excellent job telling the story of Kesey and the psychedelic movement with wonderful description and a seemingly penetrating understanding of its goals and unwritten rules. What was most striking to me is how this movement was quite separate and distinct from other social movement occurring at the same time. The acid heads were non-political and unconcerned about the racism and sexism of the time. Between 1962 and 1967 was obviously a time of huge cultural upheaval, but Wolfe shows how many different people were doing many different things. I see it as a fragmented time based on his portrayal. I do respect Kesey and his group because they were really trying to break through to something like enlightenment and transformation through the drug use. The cultural references to that time period were really fascinating and I will be looking a lot of them up. However, few people in the outer circle of the movement understood what he was trying to do, but at the same time so much of what they did with illegal drugs still seems very influential today especially in backpacker circles of which I have been on the periphery in my time overseas. The aspects of psychedelia that had to do with his quest for higher consciousness were all but lost and seem to have been replaced for the most part with an almost solipsistic self-gratification combined with the current climate of political correctness. I always thought that was what it had always been about, but he shows a very different picture, making this a knock out of a book
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Several times, Wolfe's dull narration caused my attention to wane to the point that I had to put the book down for a few days. This is a fantastic example of an ethnographic/autoethnographic (I am uncertain of Wolfe's level of participation) text and, though I am far from an authority on the matter, I feel safe in proclaiming this the quintessential book on the Hippie movement.
Started to lose steam in Mexico. Might finish it one day.
I found the content of this book really interesting but the writing style just wasn't for me at all
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use
informative
reflective
slow-paced
funny
informative
fast-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Somehow, Tom Wolfe takes a fascinating topic such as the psychedelic experience, and a counter culture movement, and makes it an utter chore to read. The topic is just so fascinating. I loved reading about Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley, the acid tests, the Hell's Angels, the Merry Pranksters. Basically all the topics in this books were fascinating, but Tom Wolfe was just not a very good writer in my opinion. I was constantly aware of the writing, and not in a good way. It took me so long to read this, I finished partly out of spite, and partly because I was legitimately interested in the content, writing be damned.