Drop City
by T.C. Boyle
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Book Summary Information
Author: T.C. BoyleEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-27
ISBN: 0142003808
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Drop City
Book Review: The Fox News Version of the Sixties
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked up this book with a certain amount of trepidation, because the sixties has become a favorite time to mock amongst those who are made uncomfortable by earnestness other than their own. But I had read some stories by Boyle and was impressed, and in the bookstore, I flipped to a random page and was struck by the power of his use of metaphor.
There is indeed lots of wonderful writing in this book, and if a novel's power were determined at the sentence level, this would be a great novel. But the plot is murky, the motivations of the characters are unknown, the faithfulness to the time fails miserably, and worst of all, the author has created a large number of characters whom he obviously despises. Over and over while reading this book I was reminded of an episode from the TV show Dragnet, popular at this time, which depicted a fellow who was trying to live according to Tolstoy's philosophical dictates. Joe Friday responded to him in the way that has since been adopted by Fox News commentators--scolding with no response allowed. That's what this book felt like.
There's lots of mockery of people living in communes here. I lived in a commune during this time period, and some of the descriptions were apt, but the author was stuck on the surface of the experience. The dirt and disorganization of communal life were more important to him than the emotion and the experience. You don't care about mess when you are trying to create something completely different from the nuclear family, when you doing something as difficult as sharing money. Speaking of money, Boyle's hippies are dependent on money from a leader with inherited wealth and on welfare and food stamps. This is news to me. I never met anyone from that time who was taking advantage of either of those programs, and while there were many leaders of the radical movement (as opposed to hippies, a separate breed) who were from wealthy families, the fact that they were involved in radicalism meant that their families cut them off from that wealth.
For a historical novel, there are many anachronisms. Some are minor, like mentions of DMT or chadors in what was supposed to be 1970. This immediately made me suspicious of how this author would treat this time period--and also of the efficacy of his editors, who should have spotted mistakes like that. But the biggest anachronism was the absence of the War in Vietnam. Many people, including Boyle, have forgotten how omnipresent the War was during this time. Every night you could see people getting shot on the evening news. You could see photos of people getting burned alive in the magazines. You could see kooks running around with "Bomb Hanoi" buttons on. You could see regular, massive, violent demonstrations against the War. There were even a number of bombings of war-associated buildings. And of course, there was the draft and the deaths, which really brought the War home. But in Boyle's version, the war has almost no effect on the characters. A couple of the men are draft dodgers, but you have no sense at all of why, and when it comes up, like when they are facing the crossing of the Canadian border, the war and the draft feel like annoying historical details rather than what they were--an impetus for action. In this book's world, the war is something unfelt. And that's not how it was at all for anyone at that time, freak or straight.
I felt very frustrated with this book on a number of levels. It's a cheap shot, as another reviewer has mentioned, but I guess that's to be expected. We have yet to come to terms with this time period. However, it also fails as a novel, not ever giving us any reason for why the characters do what they do. For instance, you don't know why Pamela wants to offer herself up as a mailorder bride to a guy living in the Alaskan bush. Her only motivation appears to be that she had fun camping there as a child. Huh? And at the end, the only truly authentic characters seem to be a couple of guys who live by killing fur-bearing animals. This is presented as somehow "true" and "real" in ways that making a living by selling beads and candles is not. When I finished the book, I wondered if the author were drawing a parallel between these hunters and the War. But no, that was way too subtle a reading.
It's a shame to see someone with talent wasting his time on a self-congratulatory screed posing as a novel. I can't say it's surprising, though. Nowadays people lap up self-righteous scolding. It doesn't make for good story-telling, though.
Summary of Drop City
It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love, and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontier?the unforgiving landscape of interior Alaska?in the ultimate expression of going back to the land. Armed with the spirit of adventure and naïve optimism, the inhabitants of ?Drop City? arrive in the wilderness of Alaska only to find their utopia already populated by other young homesteaders. When the two communities collide, 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. Rich, allusive, and unsentimental, T.C. Boyle?s ninth novel is a tour de force infused with the lyricism and take-no-prisoners storytelling for which he is justly famous.
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
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