Drop City

Rating:
Summary: Drop everything and read Drop City
Review: Drop City is the third T.C. Boyle novel I have read and I can't stop shaking my head. Being able to put ones imagination into the bowel of each plot and create a story that is believeably specific to that time period and social scene is genius.

Okay, so that kind of talent is great, but the author is also able to make the reader laugh themself silly too. What an amazing combination in a novelist, which has made Boyle my new favorite author.

Drop City takes me back to the early 70s during a time when I too was involved in the not attainable free love era. Everything comes with a price and Boyle demonstrates this brilliantly in Drop City.

Take for example naming the novel Drop City. Folks dropping city life for a life of isolated communal engagement is fun for a while, but the following excerpt from page 344 says it beautifully, " Star had a vision of the future then, of the winter, music-less, dull as paste, everybody crowded into a couple of half-finished cabins with no running water and no toilets and getting on each other's nerves while the snow fell and the ice thickened and the wind came in over the treetops like the end of everything."

Boyle also blows me away with his ability to take unlikeable people and make the reader give a lick about them. I was drained dry by the time I was finished with the book. I will be thinking about my visit to California and Alaska via the pages of Drop City for years to come.

Outstanding!




Rating:
Summary: Ants & grasshoppers in the Age of Aquarius
Review: I've admired Boyle since his debut novel, Water Music, but I admit being let down by most of his later work--the themes are great, but their execution left a bit to be desired. His talent is enormous, his ambition's contagious, his ideas are fertile as ever. But does he have the discipline to make it into the highest ranks, whose eminence I believe he can reach if he toughens up his attitude? He's the boy who likes to act the rebel, the drop-out he once was, but all along he has the makings of the PhD he became. This contrariness still simmers.

As others have noted about Drop City, Boyle's talent shines, but he's capable of much more. I do find that his ironic style has in recent work subsided a bit, giving way to measured compassion in his stories, such as many of those in After the Plague. One of the stories in that collection dealt with a serial test of potential mates in Alaska, which may be the origin of what here is the Sess and Pamela plot.

[...]. His love of boastful fakes and the ensuing macho punchouts continues here as in his other fiction, but it does get tedious even if he's good at it. I have taught his story "Greasy Lake" to college students, and much as I enjoy his bravura narrative in small doses, it can become "testiduneous"(to use a word from GL I found again in DC) over the long haul.

The two brawling contingents, hippie "grasshoppers" and sourdough "ants," do not even meet until the 280's in pagination. Lots of exposition precedes, often the most interesting feature of Boyle's writing being the details: how a commune tries to feed the folks, how you trap wolves, what a dark winter feels like in Alaska, how hippies need foodstamps and welfare to "live off the land." If you let your eye fall upon individual paragraphs, you'll find nearly invariably well-crafted, energetic, restless prose, which itches to leap off the page free of cliche, full of fresh metaphors and clever observations. Problem is, the book's structure flits from character to character in its indirect narration, and the omniscient voice of the controlling speaker filters only sporadically through a cast of sometimes insufficiently differentiated people whom you find not enough empathy for.

Sess and Pamela and Marco earn the author and thus the reader's sympathy, but Boyle's much better at male than female "consciousness." So, after a few hundred pages of calculatedly witty insights, the reader may well weary of being so much inside other people's heads without a whole lot of dialogue or relief from the omnipresent buzz of inner monologue. It's a pattern common to much of Boyle's ouevre, where his strength of commentary and his weakness of sneering coalesce.

I'm as pessimistic as the next faux-misanthrope, but while Boyle has progressed in his ability to care for his fictional humans despite our real clumsiness and hormones and ideals and hypocrisies, this novel fails ultimately to live up to its promise. I'm glad I read it, having learned a lot about the "how-to" issue of the time and places, and I wish Boyle well as he continues to improve. If he was a rookie, this'd be a remarkable season. Two decades on, this veteran still has to fulfill his potential with a bases-loaded home run. He can do it, but he has not yet. Here, form meets content, as the communal dream fades and the issue of survival, headhunters vs. basket-weavers as one character muses, comes to another inevitable Boyle smash-up.

By the way, the author's a true gentleman; I met him at a booksigning when Water Music came out--he and I the only ones there!--and his biker mien belies a much gentler soul. See "Greasy Lake" for this/my/his authorial fallacy:)

Rating:
Summary: Good Read, But Boyle Can Do Better
Review: 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.


Rating:
Summary: The Last T C Boyle
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: warm your hootch
Review: Death by superfrigid alcohol consumption...it was a first in a novel for me and an important cautionary tale. I enjoyed this book.

Rating:
Summary: Peace of Antiestablishment Mind
Review:
Oh "Drop City"..... Well, if ever there was a book that successfully chronicles the demise of the "Free Love, You can't control Me, My body is my temple so I'm going to trash it" era, it's TC Boyle's "Drop City". The book exposes all of the amusing inconsistencies and flaws wrapped up in 1970's counterculture, with ease I may add. "Drop City" follows a group of young hippies from California, where sunshine nurtures ideals and drug habits, to Alaska, where they determine that living off of the land requires an understanding of one's surroundings; something all of them lack in some sense.
In Alaska, they encounter true natives: Men and women (well, there's that one), who have embraced a life of simplicity in earnest. The novel switches back and forth from the point of view of the hippies, to that of the Alaskans, highlighting the conflicting beliefs of the two parties, and offering insight into the minds of the main characters, all of whom have chosen a lifestyle that is rather antiestablishment. Something about society has inspired charatcres like Sess and Pamela, and Star and Marco and the Drop City Residents to Drop Out and return to nature. Throughout the novel, characters begin to realize that Drop City is, in itself, a sort of microcosm of society; a minute society with it's own rules, perhaps, but a sort of society nonetheless, and it proves to be a somewhat ineffective one. It's very difficult to escape "the man" considering that we Are the man. The book as a whole offers some very amusing and witty social commentary, and while it is, indeed, a mocking description of the hippie lifestyle and culture, I felt endeared to many of the characters, which I believe was intended, and so the text was not so cynical. I suspect Boyle is as amused at the existence of such hypocrisy as the reader is.
"Drop City" is a coming of age story; The Age of this particularly naive breed of Hippie is coming to an end. Everyone must take some responsibility at some point if life is to be lived and not merely observed from behind a lackadaisical expression or an acid trip. Boyle's writing is always lovely, and often suggestive-- of quite a few things I'm sure. The book is filled with beautiful images, and some beautiful ideas, though only a few remain uncrushed by sandaled feet. The story is awfully engaging. I recommend it to those who aren't anxious to get nostalgic about "those days in the commune when I was part of the whole (but not conforming) and my left hand was permanently giving a peace sign". "Drop City" is pretty much an obituary for "those days".

Rating:
Summary: Boyle crafts faltering tale in a strikingly real world
Review: If I were to rate T.C. Boyle's Drop City in terms of its aesthetic value, there would not be enough stars to sufficiently do so. From his unconventional (yet all the more dazzling) descriptions ("the light was a gray slab." we can visualize it, but would we ever think to write it?) to his incredibly real human dialogue, and on to his admirably weaved narration, imagery,and thoughts within each flowing paragraph-- every single page is a pleasure to read, if only to admire the writing style and to see which lyrical trick Boyle will pull out next. The location portrayals, of the commune in all its disheveled glory, of the ramshackle end-of-the-road frontier town, are especially magnificent, the contrasts between the pristine serenity of the wilderness and the concrete squalor of Fairbanks doing much to accentuate the messages Boyle aims to get across.

But on to these messages. I felt for much of this book that I was being treated like a little kid who requires consistent reiteration. Yes, I understand that "cats" are [sensuous]. Yes, I understand that hippies were hedonists, not real nature-living self-sufficient mountain men like Alaskan trappers (it was clear Boyle was going to make this particular illustrative contrast from the moment we meet Sess-- but hey, he sure makes being a hippie sound like a hell of a lot more fun). I think he sells the hippie movement short- yeah I know there must have been a lot of posers, but if you're going to devote your entire life to "dropping out of the plastic world", then some credit is due, plus if it wasn't for the consistent protest of many [sensuous] cats just like Pan, I doubt women would have many of the freedoms they do today.

In general, the book seems to put too much in black and white. The clarity with which one can discern a "good" character from a "bad" character is a little peeving. Star, Marco, Sess and Pamela are good. Franklin, Lester, Sky Dog, Joe Bosky, and Pan are bad (yeah Pan means well, he likes to feed people, but its for a selfish want of recognition, so he qualifies). The bad guys die or get screwed over, the good guys live happily ever after, the plot twists are excessively dramatic (car hits a car hits a horse hits a car-- now the bulldozers are coming)... I guess as a whole it's almost MELOdramatic. But hey, story aside, this is a vivid, engaging trip back to a transitional period in American culture. I'd recommend that you read and judge it for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read, but leaves something to be desired.
Review: "Drop City" is the first book by T.C. Boyle that I have ever read. I was looking forward to reading about abstract outlooks on the world that would hopefully help me see the world in a different light. The beginning of the novel was so intriguing with the introduction of the novels main characters as well as the setting that I had trouble putting it down to stop reading. The introduction of Pan (Ronnie), Star, Marco, Reba, Norm and the members of Drop City showed a community of hippies living together, outside the "plastic world," trying to get back to the land and simple ways of living. It showed that people could come together under the same idea and way of living together without bias or judgment. Boyle's imagery of the sunrises and daily life put me inside Drop City and allowed me to see the world through the eyes of its residents as well as understand them through his descriptions. Boyle emphasizes the role of the women as the community's core and shows that without them, Drop City would most likely have failed. The women put together the meals, generally watch the children and are available to the men under the philosophy of "free love". Boyle also emphasizes the importance of women when living separately from the world, as shown in Sess Harder's search for a wife to live in the back country with him. In Sess's case, Pamela was there to help keep him sane and with the daily chores out in the wilderness. Without women holding "the home life" together, the male characters in the book would have fallen apart and been unsuccessful in their journeys. When the book shifted from Drop City in northern California to Sess Harder in Alaska, I felt lost and uncertain of the sudden change of scenery and characters. Once I read on and the book continued in the back and forth style, I was comfortable and excited to switch between the two sceneries. I was surprised that Boyle completely switched the focus of the novel and finally realized after a few pages that the importance of learning about Sess and Pamela was to show how they reacted with the hippies that moved to Drop City North. Although Sess and Pamela were interesting to learn about, it was harder to connect to them than it was to the members of Drop City.
When the members of Drop City move to Alaska because "the man" had kicked them off Norm's farm, the book seemed to fall apart. I lost my sense of connection with the characters once they moved and when they gradually began to drift apart from each other. Not only did I lose interest in the novel approximately half way through, the ending left something to be desired. It left me unsatisfied and the killing of the two "evil" characters, Joe Bosky and Pan (Ronnie), finished their story but left the story of those still in Drop City North as well as Sess and Pamela somewhat unfinished. Although "Drop City" was initially an interesting read, I lost my enjoyment of the book after Drop City moved north.


Rating:
Summary: I'd Rather Give it a 3 1/2
Review: 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.