Drop City

DROP CITY

by T.C. Boyle

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2005, National Book Finalist 2003, NY Times Finalist 2003

 

Date Read: March 7, 2023

 

Boyle imagines what would happen when the 60’s counter-culture encounters the basic need for survival and puts to the test the ideals a hippie commune profess to believe. Having worn out their welcome in California’s Russian River, Drop City, as their commune comes to be known, need to find a new place to entrench without the limitations of zoning laws and regulations.

 

The group’s nominal leader, Norm, has an uncle that abandoned a cabin in Alaska’s bush, one of the most remote places on earth. Loading up about 30 people, dogs, goats and children, they caravan up to Thirtymile and the reality of their new life slowly, bit by bit, begins to dawn on them. They now have to confront shirkers who don’t help. They now have to work tirelessly to establish a food cache and shelter before the 60 below winter sets in. In a flash, gone are the days of tripping and communing with nature. The need to survive overshadows everything that came before.

 

Drop City is an impeccably plotted and detailed look at hippie culture and the overarching principles of peace, love and the desire to welcome all. Having appreciated Groff’s Arcadia, I was expecting this to be similar. While they are indeed similar, Drop City leaves Arcadia in the dust as far as character development and attention to detail. I was enthralled.

 

Readers watch the hippies who want to be children grow into practical adults capable of enduring the realities of a wild landscape that takes no prisoners. They ultimately lose one of their own who freezes to death. We see Sess Harder grow into a husband with Pamela by his side. We are treated to the amusing twist of a closed off sexual community tainted by one member bringing crabs back to the group. 

 

The crackle and silence of snow. The necessity of a good fire. The comforts of a hot cup of anything. For all these details and more, Boyle crushed it.

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