Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom James Wolfe ISBN: 0-553-23458-7 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: February, 1982 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.61 (98 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The magic bus
Comment: Tom Wolfe follows Ken Kesey's magic bus across America in one of the best road books of the modern era. He captures the era in all its crazy, kinetic glory, from the acid tests in Haight-Ashbury to the final descent upon Timothy O'Leary's inner sanctum in New York. But, the Merry Pranksters were out of their element in the tightly controled world of the LSD guru. The Pranksters' world was a mad-cap adventure, following on the heels of Jack Kerouac with Neal Cassady at the wheel of the bus.
The book gives you all the sordid details of the acid tests which launched the psychedelic world in San Francisco in the 60's. Wolfe provides wonderful word-images of these parties that revolved around the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Kesey emerges as the leading figure of this counter culture, when LSD was still legal. However, his feel-good notion of this hallucinatory drug comes into sharp contrast with O'Leary's transcendental notions.
Along the way, the Merry Pranksters meet Larry McMurtry and other interesting figures of the time, as the bus skirts the lower half of the United States before making its away north to New York. Kesey also has a brief visit with a down-and-out Jack Kerouac, whose On the Road had inspired this adventure, but Kerouac was having none of the Pranksters, much to their chagrin.
Wolfe highlights the difference between the East Coast and the West Coast when it came to LSD. Obviously, his affinity was for the West Coast as he captures this tale in all its wonderful mixed-up glory, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read!
Rating: 5
Summary: Electric Kool-Aid for a gnome
Comment: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
This is a documentary by a fabulous journalist and author Tom Wolfe. Wolfe got into the world of hippies from the sixties. In this documentary about Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it describes the actions and tribulations that these "merry Pranksters" endured and enjoyed. In the book, a small band of "free thinkers" soon become united into an everlasting bond, which is created by one thing, DRUGS. In the novel it tells the whole story of how acid got started amongst California and the United States and it pretty much started with the pranksters. And they soon learn that the law is a very difficult source to bypass. They suffer through the jail, the raids, and being on the run; all to come back together and hallucinate. For the pranksters it was all about the experience which all came from inside their heads and the acid that was fed to them. They go on many adventures, including trips across the country in the stereotypical hippie bus. It tells of their insane journeys through bad experiences while bending their mind with hallucinogenic drugs. And the parties in which are invited many different kind of people including the Hell's Angels. The pranksters also held what they liked to call "Acid Tests" in which they could spread the experience of LSD to all that were interested. It is an amazing story, especially how it is describing these young psyche expanders. The author Tom Wolfe did a great job describing the lives of these young hippies in their experience through the drug movement of America. He told the story from an almost documentary point of view in which he could partially become part of the pranksters. Wolfe could make you believe in their movement with the click of his typewriter. He got inside the mind of each of the prankster's in-order to properly explicate their lives correctly. He could use the proper language and communication to securely tell the story of these merry pranksters. His communication of the matter gave it a feeling that the book was alive, that this isn't only a documentary but pure vitality in form. Wolfe accomplished this book by a process in which he used past experiences of his own self and past experiences of others. He interviewed pranksters; and he spent much time interviewing people who were part of the prankster's lives' even if it was only for a night. And during the end of the Prankster career days he even spent time living with them. He took time out of his life to become part of this Day-Glo essence of life. This Day-Glo world full of colors, patterns, and mind trips; that's what Wolfe got himself into. Even if you disagree with the thoughts and views of the pranksters this is still a tale full of excitement, not to mention how well written it is. I do not know if Wolfe took part in the entertainment that enthralled the Pranksters; he could have stayed sober, I am unaware. This is a great book for any reader who enjoys hearing about something new. Because after you read this you will understand the hippies. -gnome
Rating: 4
Summary: Tour Guide to the 60's
Comment: Although I bought this book when it was first out in paperback, I didn't actually get around to reading it until 1993. I wondered at the time if I would have appreciated it more as a teenager or as someone in his 40's. I'm of the opinion that it works better as a retrospective on an indulgent generation rather than a "how to" book for on-going hedonism. I'm sure that there are other opinions on this, however. I must admit that it is really an enjoyable book and one wonders about the extent of detachment or involvement of Tom Wolfe. He obviously spent a great deal of time with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and hung with them long enough to see a beginning as well as an end. I think that the ability of the book to bring things to a conclusion was helpful. Nonetheless, the journey Wolfe takes us through is fast paced and exciting and we meet many familiar names along the way. Perhaps the most surprizing familiar name for me was Larry McMurtry whom I did not associate as one who might have followed that crowd. It was certainly a time of awakening although often in ways that may have been better to sleep off. There is an electricity to the book (as there was to the era) and Wolfe certainly helps keep it charged up. For those who don't know much about the 60's, this book is essential to understanding those times. To those who lived it, this book is a reminder of how much fun it was as well as how lucky most of us were to survive it. Things are different now. As evidence of that, consider our recent president who "smoked but never inhaled". Tom Wolfe wrote something that many of can now read with a red-faced smile. Who knew anyone was taking notes at the time?
 |
Title: On the Road by Jack Kerouac ISBN: 0140042598 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas : A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by HUNTER S. THOMPSON, Ralph Steadman ISBN: 0679785892 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0802132952 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0451163966 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0060900075 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
