Rating: 
Summary: One stop on a long trip
Review: This book was one stop on a long trip of books I've been reading about the 60s. First came "Living with the Dead", then Wolfe, next is "Basketball Diaries." I was skeptical of a book about drugs and the whole 60s thing (I must say I was stereotyping) but as a person who was born in the early 70s, this book made me so curious about the generation before me. I recommend this book to open anyone's mind to a thrilling, Day-Glo, trip to someplace Furthur.
Rating:
Summary: the book that made me re-think the 60's and my life
Review: this has to be the greatest book ever written. not only does it give you a look from the inside out of the sixties, but it changes how you think, for the better. Tom Wolfe is a genius and this is not a book to be forgotten. It is about The Merry pranksters and their "Non-navigator"(informal leader) ken kesey and their search for higher conciesness though physcedelic drugs ang communal living.
Rating:
Summary: THE ULTIMATE SIXTIES REPORT
Review: Everyone should read this book. Not only because Tom Wolfe is a master writer. There is an unbelievable energy in the plot, though Wolfe's view is quite "cold" and detached, as an entomologist's one. Kesey's crew adventures in mythical sixties up and down the West Coast, as if they were pioneers of the "beyond" and when everything was possible will catch you and won't let you to put down the book until you finish it!. Absolutely essential reading for anyone who loved sixties and their mood! Even for the "E" generation, just to discover they're not first in experiencing some things...:)Joaquim de Sousa y Bonet-Milan,London,Formentera
Rating:
Summary: If you are looking for a buzz........
Review: If you have ever taken a spiritual journey (chemically induced or other), this book will replay the experience verbatim, although the words may look a little different. Before thinking of this as glorifying the 60s LSD culture, realize too that the downside of the 60s counterculture is presented, if not directly, through the consequences of the actors in the drama. The ultimate judgment is left up to the reader. Were Kesey and his Merry Pranksters heroes? Were they merely full of themselves, empowered by LSD? You decide. But man, what a ride!
Rating:
Summary: pulls my world together
Review: i love this book. so much in it makes sense about perspectives, ways to connect with people, with the world. and tom wolfe's writing, while jerking and almost too bald at times, is riveting.
Rating:
Summary: phantastic
Review: Tell you what- if I were a philosophy professor, and I taught a class- this would be the only book I used.
Rating: 
Summary: Good subject ; terrible writing
Review: Well, you know, Wolfe benefits E-normously from dealing with a subject matter that's infinitely interesting. Who amongst us is not captivated by other human beings making beasts of themselves? And who amongst us is not obsessed with that turbulent time known as the sixties? HOWEVER, the book suffers e-NORMOUSLY from Wolfe's disgusting writing tricks, in which he tries to convey the Immediacy of the even by breaking the narrative off into poem, or just one-line,one-word interjections like WOW! and then continuing on. The book's got fine material, but the work itself is just over-wrought silliness. However, perhaps most, if not all, of the 60s could be summed up as such.
Rating:
Summary: VERY ENLIGHTENING ON THE HIPPY MOVEMENT
Review: TOM WOLFE IS AMONG FEW JOURNALISTS WHO KEEP IT REAL AND THIS BOOK IS GREAT-IT REEKS OF ACID PEAK: PEOPLE WITH CLOSED MINDS SHOULD NOT READ FOR FEAR OF LEARNING SOMETHING
Rating:
Summary: A celebration of an intense personality, Ken Kesey.
Review: The subject of this book is not so much drugs, counter-culture, or the 1960's as much as it is about Ken Kesey himself. Wolfe doesn't need to examine the hippie revolution from the angle of drugs, sex, and flower power. Time magazine and other journalists will tackle that later. Wolfe is more critical of 60's hippiedom with its false ideals and unrealistic expectations. There is an underlying conservative attitude to this book that only Wolfe can convey through cool irony and detached humor. The book opens, "That's good thinking, Cool Breeze." Wolfe is mocking some spaced-out hippy, Cool Breeze, who's babbling incoherently in the back of a pick-up. Wolfe, however, has a certain admiration for Kesey, a counter-cultural figure who generates awe and enthusiasm from his followers. From this book, it is clear that Kesey was a pioneer of 60's hedonism and one who pushed the boundaries of the hipster world. Coming out of the 50's beatnik era, scamming LSD from part-time jobs at psychiatry wards, and originating "freak-outs" of the straight world, Kesey created his own legend and established his own cult, The Merry Pranksters. His hold over this cult was demonstrated though "power games" and pseudo-religous and philosophical mysticisms. Part of Kesey's appeal to Wolfe is the traditional qualities of a prophet or cult-leader, Budda-like in his ability to rouse enthusiasm and create an ideal image of self that others are wlling to conform to. Kesey expressions like "On the bus, off the bus," or " "Nothing lasts" become Merry Prankster mantras, which are intended to spread the hippie ideal. This is what Wolfe excavates--the power of a personality and how it contributes to a movement-- and does so with the classic, razor-wit style that only Tom Wolfe can put forth.
Rating: 
Summary: My head hurt worse than when I ACTUALLY dropped acid...
Review: This is a surprising piece of work. Tom Wolfe writes most of the book seemingly from the view of the Merry Pranksters. However, his tone seems to become distanced and coldly objective as the book concludes. Ultimatly the reader may (if not deluded into thinking the lifestyle a virtual utopia) see flaws and ultimate failure of the lifestyle. I did not find the Merry Pranksters amusing, free, or admirable. I found much of their behaviour to be mindlessly hedonistic, self-destructive, and generally sheep-like in following the teachings of a raving loon. By the end of the book, I had a throbbing headache. However, I think the problem lies not in the writing of Tom Wolfe (for I enjoyed his other books tremendously) but in the subject matter. In conclusion, I am surprised that the scrambled, self-indulgent mind of Ken Kesey was capable of conceiving such a brilliant book as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
|
