N° 3333
Set in the 1970s, Boyle entertains readers with the denizens of
"Drop City", a counterculture California commune that welcomes
anyone wanting to live off the grid, use drugs and practice free
love. Boyle sublimely captures the sociology of its rebellious
members, who doubt the sincerity or beliefs of newcomers, express
some insecurity about nonconformity, chastise outsiders while
oblivious to their own hypocrisy. Marco, Pan, Star and other "cats"
and "chicks", live hassle-free until dissention and cries of racism
mount amid increasing run-ins with the local government (a young
girl is raped, installation of a sewage system is mandated, a
mother lets her toddlers drink LSD-laced juice). Seeking refuge,
the citizens move north, to Alaska, to reinvent their utopia, but
soon learn the natural environment is more unforgiving of a
lackadaisical lifestyle.
Drop City is funny, evocative and well-paced, shifting between the
hippies and the Alaskan locals--primarily Sess and his new bride
Pamela (a city dweller who arranged stays with several trappers
over a few weeks to determine whom she would marry)--until the two
cultures collide. Balanced between plot and character, Boyle excels
at describing the physical world and his characters' interaction
with it, whether portraying the harshness (or sheer beauty) of the
Alaskan wilderness, the simple survival routines of its grizzled
inhabitants, or the sounds wafting through Drop City:
the goats bleating to be milked or fed, the single sharp ringing
note of a dog surprised by its own hunger, the regular slap of the
screen door at the back of the house--and underneath it all, like
the soundtrack to a movie, the dull hum of rock and roll leaking
out the kitchen windows.
Truly American in spirit, Drop City is a strong novel of freedom
and the pursuit of liberty
Lawson Park Electronic Library is a Guestroom project for Grizedale Arts, designed and built by Dorian Moore