Rating: 
Summary: Get on the bus!
Review: "You're either on the bus...or off the bus." This is the choice facing you as you begin to read Tom Wolfe's classic saga of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters as they test the boundries of consciousness and test the limits of other human's patience. What is almost as amazing as the lengths to which the pranksters went to enjoy their existence on Earth, is the style that Wolfe has chosen to narrate the adventures. Brillliantly blending stream of consciousness writing and a journalistic sense of description, Wolfe immerses himself in Kesey's world in an attempt to understand the thoughts of a group of adults who would paint a school bus with day-glo colors and trek across the United States with pitchers full of acid and a video camera keeping an eye on it all. Who could resist a chance to find out what it was like to spend a quaint evening in the woods reaching altered states of consciousness with a group of Hell's Angels, or taking a peek inside the world of the budding hippie stars led by a youthful Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Whether or not you approve of massive drug use will not impact your liking of this book, and for anyone who takes an interest in the counterculture movement this book is a must-read. Also acts as a perfect companion to Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Now you must decide, "Can YOU pass the acid test?"
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Summary: Stellar Wolfe at the door!
Review: As soon as I came across this book while searching for books about the betnik population, this book struck my eyes first. Not only was it a great and entertaining read, but also gave a lot of information about Ken Kesey and his revolution. I had no idea that Ken Kesey was such a prominant figure in the whole era of the hippies, but after reading this book I now see all that Kesey did to promote the betnik population. The book begins with Kesey leavnig jail, on account for arrests dealing with drug charges. I new Kesey as the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, and the book describes his rise to fame from that book. It then goes on to tell of the early beginning of LSD, which was developed by Timothy Leary. Kesey starts a group, which gains many followers that gain the name The Merry Pranksters. They go on a crazy bus trip all across the United States, live aimlessly in La Honda, meet with the Hell's Angles, get arrested numerous times, and finally begin partying with the Warlocks, who are later to be known as the Greatful Dead. The book sis a time capsule through the sixties, from the time acid was first tested, until finally when Kesey escapes to Mexico. Not only does Tom wolfe vividly describe the adventure, but also along the way describes the scene of the whole American population and how the people of the United States were affected by they new wave of hippies and betnik's during the sixties.Also highly recommended: Children's Corner by McCrae, A Man in Full, Gravity's Rainbow
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Summary: an American original--and a classic, too
Review: Wolfe's prose sparkles and crackles with multicolored colored exuberance and life and energy. He perfectly captures the spirit, mentality, and consciousness of Ken Kesey--who seems more contrarian than psychedelic--and his Merry Pranksters, from their wild clothing to their psychedelic trips on acid. And it's funny, too, full of great episodes. Like when Kesey speaks at an anti-Vietnam War rally and shows up in militaristic regalia--and the whole rally just dissipates. Or the party with the Hell's Angels. Or when the Pranksters visit the estate where Timothy Leary is experimenting, meditating, and holding forth--Leary's group takes everything so seriously, they seem drab, gray, and mundane next to the neon-like Pranksters. If the mainstream was, as Wolfe writes, "poor old Formica polyethylene 1960s America," then Kesey and the Pranksters represented "the neon of 1960s electro-pastel America."
It's also a hoot to try to picture straight-laced Wolfe mingling with these hippies and acid-freaks. Of course, he was younger then, but somehow, I think he fit in about as well as he must have when visiting colleges for his latest book. More power to him. For in interacting with and observing individuals and their groups, he writes masterpieces, of which this must be one of his best. It's a rollicking good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written but a rough read
Review: After two attempts, 4 months, and lots of time forgotten by my bedside, I have finally been able to complete Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests." This book is by no means an easy read and only after the first 250 pages was I able to get into the flow of the book. Wolfe has a notable talent for adapting his literary voice to match the subject of his work. Unfortunately in this case, the subject matter was a group of acid heads, which doesn't leave a very clear voice behind. The non-fiction novel was written in a non-stop stream of conscious writing style. Focus changes in a matter of words and paragraphs last for pages. Again, this was NOT an easy read. Going along with Wolfe's New Journalism, the piece was littered with noises and:::::::: interesting forms of punctuation.
New journalism always brings a more entertaining light to subject matter, and Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters were funny enough to begin with. While the comedy comes blink-and-you'll-miss-it, the jokes are hearty. A fan of reading about the drug culture, this was definitely an interesting book for me to read. Once a reader can get past the dense language and difficult structure, and merry read is ahead.
This book comes as a great follow up to anyone reading Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest," but if a reader was looking for an interesting read on the culture of the times, I'd recommend him or her to pick up some Hunter S. Thompson first. The subject matter remains the same while the writing has much more to be enjoyed.
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Summary: A Must Read - Portrait of a Time and Place
Review:
Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is both a great work of research and an entertaining portrait of a time and place, following the exploits Ken Keseys' Merry Pranksters on the authentic Magical Mystery tour of discovery. The acid tests are of course LSD experiments, but the book is about much more: the hippie era, the wonder of life, the value of questioning tradition. Above all it's a colorful and entertaining depiction of a time and place. Grab a moment and read this one -- and prepared to be transported. Take this trip -- you'll love it. Also recommended: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
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Summary: I guess I don't understand the appeal of this.
Review: Though I think the sixties were an interesting time period in American history, I could just not get into this book whastoever. If you were there and understood what went on in San Fransisco in the 60s, you might love this book. But I think that it's the most nonsensical piece of crap I have ever come across. At first, the book is interesting, but you have to admit that 432 pages is a BIT too much for completely incoherent acid ramblings, right?
The book is so unbelievably disjointed that I thought briefly that maybe "Tom Wolfe" was an alias for an experiment that involved a million monkeys on a million typewriters. But unfortunately it is the great journalist who wrote this, who by the way is responsible for a number of fascinating books like Bonfire of the Vanities. Say it isn't so.
I hate to knock Wolfe, but I could write a better, more coherent book than this if I went up to a computer and typed completely random thoughts and words for an hour. Maybe this book is why so many people hate hippies. If you were there and have taken acid, you will love this book. Others will think, "God, no wonder acid is illegal now, since so-called books like this were actually written under the influence of it and printed to bore readers out of their minds!"
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Summary: Can't come up with a title
Review: The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe was by far the best book that I have ever read. Tom Wolfe amazingly was able to capture a certain essance of the moment. In some cases that may not be so impressive, but have you ever seen the guy? He's a flatout dork... Anyway the book explains so many aspects of the time and the Merry Pranksters; it startled me to see how many things have since penetrated into our very culture--not just counter-culture. There are no words that I can find to explain why this book is so awesome, so just buy it, just read it and let the parallels between your life and the book surprise you. As I read the book so many things kept coming up,(I felt like I was "On the bus") I noticed strangers reading the book and discovered many alusions and found out why I dress the way that I do (I have neon orange tights with a little skirt, boots and a western style shirt on toda.) Reading this book has brought me to a new level, I love Wolfe's languange and the way the he lays it out like it is. Now when I write I write with the slang and the pase that the people I know set so that I can capture a particular sceene as did Wolfe when writing The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test.
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Summary: Great History of the American Psychedelic Acid Movement
Review: This book is around 400 pages and a very detailed history, many stories, and it's hard to remember all the facts, you'll have to read the book yourself for that. The story is of the "Intrepid Travelers," Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, a communal group of acid ingesters who were the progenitors of the acid consciousness in the California, in the US, in the world's consciousness of awareness . . . "your either on the bus or off the bus."
It was the influential chemists, Al Hubbard, Dr. Spaulding and the psychologists, Timothy Leary and Richard Albert, the Harvard psychology professors, who discovered for themselves psylobilin and with Michael Hollingshead and Albert Hoffman, LSD and subsequently held experiments using the right set and setting with experienced psychedelic guides. Yet to this the Merry Pranksters would say, "f**k that!" because they were from a different movie of living; in the now, the unserene and lurid art, your brain being your only guide, not some experienced taker and specific setting for a safe non-freak-out trip (and there were a lot of "freak-outs" from many young, emotionally inexperienced). And the acid influenced cultural movement they began in the early 1960's. It was Leary and Albert who endorsed the "set and setting," the intellectual approach or non-organizational religious approach, the religious experience of the mystics, in their dialogue with acid and mushrooms. With Kesey and the Pranksters it was spontaneous, wild party kind of living in Day-Glow colors, in the multimedia sound and movie.
The Pranksters account starts in North Beach on Perry Lane, which becomes a major hang out for all sorts and eventually ends up in a cottage near La Honda, where the loud party of outlandish, Day-Glo painted woods - rigged with microphones and massive sound equipment, in the communal life takes on a new meaning. The Hell's Angels befriend the Pranksters and there are stories of personalities, telepathic and psychic connections and synchronicity in new fields of human life, the overmind, the collective unspoken mind of the psychedelic group. The religious realm of mystical awareness as in the game of I-Ching and dream wars. The Jungian "synchronicity" seemed to occur uncanningly many times, as their bus out of gas in the middle of nowhere only to have a tanker pull up and fuel them from nowhere. The sign on their door welcoming the Hell's Angels to end up having them and succeeding in their prankster madness. The sign on their door welcoming the Beatles, did not synchronize them to appear, but what did was having Oswley appear, the famous acid maker, who in the ways of synchronistic noncausal effect, was responsible for the finest acid which spread to England, the acid that brought the Beatles to experience the unspoken mind which ended them up traveling by bus across the English countryside with cameras and microphones.
Imagine a Day-Glo painted bus, the magic bus, with Day-Glo painted people and clothes, tripping on acid traveling from California to the New York World's Faire with music blasting, a freak show on wheels, all in the year 1964! And Neil Cassidy (Jack Kerouac's buddy and drive from On The Road) driving the bus!! And their trip to the legendary Millbrook, thinking it would be some historic meeting with Leary and the Pranksters, but instead it was the mystical religious and intellectuals verses the wild party, American flag draped, painted, loud blaring music, party animals of psychedelic madness. I think it relates to the age and the introvert and/or extrovert type personalities that played the large part.
It was actually Stewart Brand who thought up the great Trip Festival of January 1966. The series of acid test parties held by Kesey and the Pranksters helped spawn the movement of higher consciousness, all held at the last minute, the same day notification was put, and the Pranksters playing their instruments, then finding a local band, the warlocks - later known as the Grateful Dead - to play and Roy Seburn's light shows at the acid tests. It was the acid test held in a Unitarian church where the Kool-Aid was spiked, unknowingly to those attending. It was not teachings in the stiff, reverent language and texts of scholarly limnings found in various religions being taught but instead an aura, a religious experience, an awareness that flashed deeper than cerebration, the tradition of the great prophets. People like the beats Allen Ginsberg and his entourage and Neil Cassidy were there. As this spread, so the acid tests, later without Kesey and Haight Ashbury became the scene.
Later on Kesey gets busted twice for weed and is on the run from the law, to Mexico and back until caught - he was in their movie that time, fortunately most charges dropped. A lot to read of the characters and generally a great book to get an idea of a unique and special time and place in history where a much larger degree of freedom existed for the white middle class with the ability to gain other realms of consciousness available for the taking. A great pictorial book on this is "On The Bus" by Paul Perry, Michael Schwartz, Neil Ortenberg & Ken Babbs.
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Summary: An Amazing Book That You Can't Miss!
Review: While many people may not approve of the topic of this book, it carries a cross-generational message which we would be well advised not to ignore. Aging baby-boomers with problem children would do well to pick up a copy of The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test as a poignant reminder of our own generation's quirks and foibles. Generation `X' ers might learn that they didn't first invent new ways of tormenting their parents.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test charts the strange odyssey of author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) and his band of Merry Pranksters as they metamorphosed from Beatniks to Hippies. Tom Wolfe's masterpiece offers a detached view of the alternate lifestyles, experiments with drugs, sex and the world view offered by the counter-culture of the 60's. He doesn't necessarily approve of everything they did, but he does try to offer an objective recounting of some events that had a major impact on American life for all time.
Wolfe recounts how Kesey met a freak/genius chemist with the rather improbable name of Augustus Owsley Stanley III, who lent his middle name to one of the more potent types of LSD which was in circulation in California in the days before it became illegal. Owsley purchased a bulk quantity of Lysergic Acid Monohydrate from a chemical warehouse, using the fictitious name "The Beyer Research Group". He turned this into over 1 million doses of the infamous "Blue Owsley" - an oval tablet with a picture of Batman stamped on the side of it.
Much of the proceeds from this venture were used to fund and equip a band called The Warlocks, which would become better known as "The Grateful Dead". Kesey also managed a rather dubious accomplishment by turning the Hell's Angels on to Acid. I'm not sure what he was trying to do by welcoming self-proclaimed social outcasts with open arms, but he pulled it off without anyone getting beaten or killed.
Purchasing an old International school bus for $1500, Kesey and company set off on the first of many bizarre cross-country trips. Perhaps the strangest confrontation came when the Pranksters dropped in uninvited and unannounced at the Millbrook, NY compound of drug guru Timothy Leary. Never was there such a culture clash as the meeting of the two self-appointed High Priests of High. Leary and his group were into somber meditation and trying to unlock the secrets of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Kesey and his band were simply out to have a raucous good time, and they thought that Leary and his followers took this whole thing altogether too seriously.
Criss-crossing the country from 1964 through 1967, Kesey and company most certainly raised a few eyebrows with their bus painted in every imaginable color. While some would prefer to believe that they were also raising the level of conciousness among the young people of America at the time, the truth is that many people never heard of this legend until well after the fact.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test holds a mirror up to our past which reflects a great deal of cultural change which has transformed our society, in both good ways and bad. Those who didn't grow up or come of age in this period of time will have a difficult time understanding the viewpoint and mores of Middle America in the middle of the 1960s. Those who did may cast a sheepish look back at ourselves and ruefully reflect on how we ourselves have changed, and in ways we never anticipated. Pick up a copy of this great book! You won't regret it! Also recommended is On The Road by Jack Kerouac and The Losers Club by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: Kool-Aid More than Tastes Good
Review: This book is about the American born, hippie movement. The journalist Tom Wolfe infiltrates the Merry Prankster's before their Acid Graduation and tells the whole story. I liked this book because of the wild details of the tripped out life of acid heads. Wolfe takes us for a ride with the Pranksters, through their beginnings as intellectuals in Stanford, to the low days of living as outlaws in Mexico. In the end Ken Kesey, the leader of the Merry Pranksters, talks about another way other than LSD, DMT, Peptide, and Marijuana making the reader feel reassured. This is a great read and historical reference, so if you're looking for some info on the 60's or just need a laugh I would recommend, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
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