Drop City

Drop City tells the story of a group of hippies who, in 1970, leave their California commune to attempt to start a new one in Alaska.

Author TC Boyle seems to have a gift for language - the book's written well - but the story is a bit of a meandering mess and lacks the charm of other anti-nostalgic looks at the era (Mad Men, for example).

None of the Drop City characters are in the least bit sympathetic. They're a bunch of spoiled, irresponsible children who are so reflexively antagonistic to “The Man” that they overlook things like child endangerment and rape, and who survive only through the privilege of their landscape and the charity of the US government. Boyle contrasts their fantasy of being “off the grid” with the reality of the Alaskan community, which could be interesting, but because we're not given any reason to care about the DCers, or see them as three-dimensional characters, none of the contrast is really able to raise any real interest.

This was my most recent slow but steady. Boyle is a master of language. He captures the meandering and the meaningless in the attempted intentionality to be unintentional. It's funny and frenetic and a sprawling mess of humanity. Above all, Drop City is another example that at the heart of his writing, Boyle is just a great storyteller and even when I struggle to find a character to connect with I was compelled to continue reading to see where the narrative would go.