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Drop City | 
| Author: T. C. Boyle
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  113 reviews
Sales Rank: 783733
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6.2 x 1.7
ASIN: B0009YARGY
Publication Date: February 24, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
With Drop City, T. Coraghessan Boyle offers proof that he has become one of America's most prolific, gifted storytellers. Set in the 1970s, Boyle entertains readers with the denizens of "Drop City," a counterculture California commune that welcomes anyone wanting to live off the grid, use drugs, and practice free love. Boyle sublimely captures the sociology of its rebellious members, who doubt the sincerity or beliefs of newcomers, express some insecurity about nonconformity, and chastise outsiders while remaining oblivious to their own hypocrisy. Marco, Pan, Star, and other "cats" and "chicks" live hassle-free until dissention and cries of racism mount amid increasing run-ins with the local government (a young girl is raped, installation of a sewage system is mandated, a mother lets her toddlers drink LSD-laced juice). Seeking refuge, the citizens move north, to Alaska, to reinvent their utopia, but soon learn the natural environment is more unforgiving of a lackadaisical lifestyle. Drop City is funny, evocative, and well-paced, shifting between the hippies and the Alaskan locals--primarily Sess and his new bride Pamela (a city dweller who arranged stays with several trappers over a few weeks to determine whom she would marry)--until the two cultures collide. Balanced between plot and character, Boyle excels at describing the physical world and his characters' interaction with it, whether portraying the harshness (or sheer beauty) of the Alaskan wilderness, the simple survival routines of its grizzled inhabitants, or the sounds wafting through Drop City: "the goats bleating to be milked or fed, the single sharp ringing note of a dog surprised by its own hunger, the regular slap of the screen door at the back of the house--and underneath it all, like the soundtrack to a movie, the dull hum of rock and roll leaking out the kitchen windows." Truly American in spirit, Drop City is a strong novel of freedom and those in pursuit of lives of liberty. --Michael Ferch
Product Description
T.C. Boyle has proven himself to be a master storyteller who can do just about anything. But even his most ardent admirers may be caught off guard by his ninth novel, for Boyle has delivered something completely unexpected: a serious and richly rewarding character study that is his most accomplished and deeply satisfying work to date.
It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune has decided to relocate to the last frontier-the unforgiving landscape of interior Alaska-in the ultimate expression of going back to the land. The novel opposes two groups of characters: Sess Harder, his wife Pamela, and other young Alaskans who are already homesteading in the wilderness and the brothers and sisters of Drop City, who, despite their devotion to peace, free love, and the simple life, find their commune riven by tensions. As these two communities collide, their alliances shift and unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born as everyone struggles with the bare essentials of life: love, nourishment, and a roof over one's head.
Drop City is not a satire or a nostalgic look at the sixties, though its evocation of the period is presented with a truth and clarity that no book on that era has achieved. This is a surprising book, a rich, allusive, and nonsentimental look at the ideals of a generation and their impact on today's radically transformed world. Above all, it is a novel infused with the lyricism and take-no-prisoners storytelling for which T.C. Boyle is justly famous.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 108 more reviews...
Dystopian Corrective to Free Love 60's Myth- Weird anachronisms though July 12, 2008
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.
Read On and Drop Out! July 6, 2008
T.C. Boyle renders a hippie commune in California like none other I've read about. He goes inside the life, plucks out the personalities, the habits, the resulting chaos in expert fashion. Like all things communal, it starts off well enough, but the problems soon mount and they range from mandatory sewage to rape accusations. The members have to move to survive and the leader has a destination in mind: Alaska.
Alaska forgives less than California in terms of the environment and in the colder northern latitudes, things unravel. The archetypes wear thin, lose their communal code, and abandon fantasy for reality. A core lives on and this is redeeming for all involved, including the reader.
Boyle conveys the sense of place as well as the interpersonal relationships in expert fashion. He brings these people to life with less subtlety but more realism than a less talented writer might have. At the same time, his plot gives these characters room to make their mistakes and triumphs. I'd recommend this book for a sociology class, just to provoke thought and commentary. A very good read.
 A true story badly told November 30, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
Another Look at Communal Life October 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this novel, TC Boyle tells the story of one commune in California, where those who want to live a different life can "drop out and tune in." Although this is an idea whose time seems to have come and gone, Boyle's examination reminds us not just of an idea that has passed, but an era (1960s and early 1970s) when the whole world looked different. However, this is no glorification of the counterculture: Boyle shows communal life as it was, warts and all.
This story really gets interesting when the commune is forced to move to Alaska when neighbors shut down the California camp. Then things get tough, and personalities really come to the fore, and things become a lot less, well, communal. The harsh beauty of nature is truly felt by the commune members in Alaska, and their inability to cope with the extremes of nature is contrasted with the hardened Alaskans who truly understand how to survive in the wild beauty of the last frontier.
As so many learned in the 1960s, it is much easier to have a dream (such as communal living) than to implement it for the betterment of all. Through his novel, Boyle points up only too well that the greatest asset of the counterculture of the 1960-70s (individual freedom) was also its weakest link. This is a wonderful novel, and readers will have difficulty tearing themselves away from Boyle's wonderful writing.
 I didn't find what I was looking for October 13, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Since I grew up with hippie parents I am always on the lookout for insight into the sixties-- a moment in history that had a profound impact on my family. With its wealth of characters and imaginative scenarios, this book could have been a rich opportunity to delve deeper. But I didn't discover anything fresh here. Instead I was frustrated by what felt like the exploitation of mean-spirited cliches. True, the writing has an insider vibe-- the cultural details are right. But Boyle seems prejudiced by a cynicism he never really cops to and his tale is too prone to sensationalism to do justice to the theme.
The hippie children in the book, "Che and Sunshine" are one-dimensional throw-aways and their mother is deplorable. Not at all typical of the hippie mothers I knew. And I wondered-- why are there only two children in such a large commune?
I will keep looking for insight about the sixties with the help of writers who are themselves in a process of inquiry. This book left me empty handed.
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