have them read this book. Drop City, by T.C. Boyle, follows two story lines throughout the novel. On one hand, you have a husband and wife living in the woods of Alaska, surviving on the meat they hunt and the vegetables they grow. Very appealing and a little Little House on the Prarie-esque. And then on the other hand, you have dirty, drug obsessed hippies, living off of welfare, acid-laced Kool Aid, and tofu burritos in California. When the police threaten to arrest them and kick them off their land, they journey to Alaska to "go back to nature," which for them means growing weed in their backyard and living off food stamps. Their encounters with the locals leads to events that the whole book is based upon. I wasn't really crazy about the commune sections of the book. Especially the part where one girl comes home from working at a strip club and then the whole clan gets crabs from their idyllic "free love" beliefs. Yuck.
A quick google search tells me that Drop City was an actual intentional community in Colorado in the late '60s, the first "hippie commune." Although the book is not about this specific community, I'm sure there are many similarities. Even though I wasn't crazy about some of the characters, the book still held my interest until the end and overall I liked it. But I'm also looking forward to moving on to something new.
7/10
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