Rating: 
Summary: One of the most interesting books I've read!
Review: This book takes plase in the late 60's-70's during the psychedelic movement in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. It is about a reporter, Tom Wolfe who hears about an author, Ken Kesey of the novel, One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest(1962) and his arrest for drug possession. Tom wants to interview Kesey on his arrest for a story only to learn that Kesey's life story and those of his friends are more interesting then the arrest. He decides not to do the interview but to write a book about Kesey and his apostles, the Pranksters and their colorful life. When Kesey is released from prison he takes his Pranksters on a trip in a day-glow bus and as they travel across America they take mind expanding drugs such as LSD. I recommend this book to anyone over the age of eighteen due to the specifi drug context in the book because the author does not only specify the specific drugs but is explicit on the experience of the person's mental and emotional state who is under the influence. The book also contains a lot of factual historical information of the turbulent 60's-70's.
Rating: 
Summary: a journey through the mad acid experience
Review: If you weren't part of the Acid Generation, this book can take you into the psychedelic past- Tom Wolfe brillantly tells the story of the merry pranksters led by the madly chrismatic Ken Kesey- Pot, DDT, LSD, Speed, among other drugs are all part of the insanely energetic life of the Pranksters- However, Wolfe doesn't just tell, he reaches out grabs you and pulls you into the experience- You become "on the bus" and you feel the frightening realities of the surreal trip which is LSD and the way of life surrounding it- This book will open new realms of your mentality- I have yet to read more of Wolfe's pieces, but i can tell you this book is fantastic- My words of advice are READ IT!
Rating:
Summary: Still a great book despite the foolishness of the characters
Review: There is something so sweet and so innocent about the myth of the 60s that you almost forget that these people were just as prone to infighting, backstabbing, selfishness, jealousy, and all the other sins that shows like Survivor capitalize upon. Tom Wolfe takes a rare journalistic travel with some of the original hippies - Ken Kesey's merry pranksters who travel the country on a bus driven by Neal Cassidy in his post-On the Road, pre-dead on a railroad tracks glory while dropping acid and having lots of sex. There are gang bangs, acid laced koolaid, arrests, faked deaths, and the beginning of one of the greatest novels in America. Written with less journalistic objectivity than most book, you can tell that Tom Wolfe is a fan of these guys even as he doesn't directly participate in their lifestyle as you imagine Hunter S. Thompson would do. Wolfe compiles thousands of interviews and experiences in order to bring people into the heads of these tripped out losers and in the process makes them into legends. The only problem is that sometimes WOlfe goes a little too far off the deep end and in creating dialogue and internal monologues for these characters he's more projecting his own biases. A later book of his (The Right Stuff) takes this method to extremes as he spends a good deal of time writing his narrative from a test monkey's perspective. While there is nothng so extreme in this book, it is more pervasive here. This is both a classic of the 60s counterculture and a great example of gonzo journalism (which is to real journalism like Herodotus is to history). At very least it is a great insight into the mind and work of Ken Kesey who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (partially on acid) and who became a celebrity in his own right. By the way, if you are going to buy this book you might as well buy One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. You won't be able to resist that book if you read this one.
Rating:
Summary: I wasn't alive in the 60's
Review: I was not alive in the 60's but reading this book gave me a good idea what it was like. For anyone that is even remotely curious as to what that decade is about, this is the book to read. Wolfe may not have been taking LSD, but his job was no less "trippy." As I was reading, I couldn't help wishing that I could have been there, freaked myself out and gone wild in the country. There is A LOT going on in this book, which might discourage some people. But expanding your mind can be a confusing thing.
Rating:
Summary: Being There
Review: I've savored just about every word this man's ever written. I still vividly recall him at a lecture he gave in Berkley in 1972 standing at the lectern in his white Gatsby suit, starched pink shirt and nattily knotted tie. I can't recall the ostensible topic. He covered so much ground and had such a wealth of ideas and insights that the topic was irrelevent anyway. He's always been our keenest observer of American culture, on subjects ranging from hippies, art snobs, wall street, the space race, to the Southern nouveau-riches. In terms of unadulterated reading enjoyment, however, this book is still my favorite. He captures the era perfectly. This was the period in the mid-sixties when the hippie philosophy and lifestyle was still genuine, before it had become commercially exploited by the mass media, before Manson and Altamont and the seeds of evil. It was an uncorrupted, pure, joyous movement and moment. Owsley was the bay area chemist who produced hits of Sandoz-quality acid that sent the children out dancing blissfully through the night and into the purple dawn. It truly looked like a brave new world. If you are young and can't undertand why former hippies wax nostalgic about it, it's primarily (at least to me) because that tiny era of innocence can never be recreated. The waters of cynisism have washed away all the bridges to that idyllic past. The era can, however, thanks to Tom Wolfe, be revisited. I urge you to take the tour.
Rating:
Summary: The Cool Aid to my lit project
Review: This book is one of the coolest, weirdest, and hardest to understand book I have ever read. The topics it talks about are amazing in their awkward happenings. Wolfe talks about the Acid Reunion in great detail. The things Kesey went through in his early life such as writing books while druged up on acid is amazing. The titles of the chapters are a riot as well. Some titles are:The bladder totem, What do you think of my Buddha? and many others. I believe this book is great to read and every teenager should read this book for laughs and for the experience of what is was like to live like Ken Kesey did.
Rating:
Summary: The Cool Aid to my lit project
Review: This book is one of the coolest, weirdest, and hardest to understand books I have ever read. The topics it talks about are amazing in their awkward happenings. Wolfe talks about the Acid Reunion in great detail. The things Kesey went through in his early life such as writing books while druged up on acid is amazing. The titles of the chapters are a riot as well. Some titles are:The bladder totem, What do you think of my Buddha? and many others. I believe this book is great to read and every teenager should read this book for laughs and for the experience of what is was like to live like Ken Kesey did.
Rating:
Summary: Lifelong Inspiration
Review: I first read this book 20 years ago. Last month a got a new copy and read it again. I realized that this book has been speaking to me, inspiring me all those years. It's still so fresh and challenging. It still fills me with energy and good humor. What's the saying - 'Read it again for the first time.' I recommend it all over again. PS: I recently read a new book called "The Leap", by Tom Ashbrook, which reminded me of Tom Wolfe's masterpiece - but in a completely updated setting. The arena always changes, but that life of discovery goes on. Anyway, thank you, Tom Wolfe! You've been a lifelong inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Electric? It Sure Was
Review: This book probably gives the most detailed and essential guide to the sixties. Being a teenager now, i have no idea what the time period was like, but after reading Tom Wolfes book, i have a pretty good idea. The book delves into the heart of 60's America, giving (in as much detail as possible i think) a wierd and wonderful account of people, pranks and LSD. The book is written in a style i have never come across before, Wolfe using very inventive terms. The style itself is used mainly to re-create the feel of the time period, getting the feel of being 'On The Bus', and providing fantastic results. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters aren't given bias either. They aren't praised or put down and that gives the book an extra strength. Wolfe using a 3rd person account, simply tells a story (and what a story). Some parts of the book are somewhat longwinded, but on a whole its a masterpiece, quite simply a classic. Its certainly different, sometimes providing a somewhat LSD account of things, but wasn't that the sixties in a nut-shell? Probably. This is what Tom Wolfe set out to create, and how well he manages it. Reading it now you'll think, "Wouldn't it be great to experiance the sixties for myself. Being on the bus, grooving with Kesey and the Pranksters, playing the cops and robbers game..." and then you realise you only went and got born in the 80's! Still, opening the book again will transport there in the comfort of your own home. 'ELECTRIC' and 'KOOL', a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: FURTHUR
Review: I suppose the style of writing Tom Wolfe chose to adopt for this book was an attempt to try and capture the turned on and tuned in mind state of it's characters. Whether said style has aged well is besides the point. THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST is still a fascinating glimpse into the lives of a group of cultural renegades known as The Merry Pranksters. Their lysregic-fueled adventures are chronicled here in all it's joyous and unpleasant detail. This was the beginning of the 60's drug culture and the cast of characters aboard the bus are fascinating. An entertaining read.
| 
