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Title: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0-553-38064-8 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.61 (98 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I Never Learned So Much About Acid
Comment: Wow. I really did not realize the social, economical, and cultural importance of the drug acid. Tom Wolfe brilliantly explains how the once legal drug influenced a whole generation of "merry pranksters," expanding their minds and consciousness. "Electric Kool-Aid" describes the travels of the Merry Pranksters (a group of "hippies" on a pilgrimage from Cali to New York) and the colorful characters that join them. From the Hell's Angels to Ginsberg, Wolfe informs the reader of various "acid tests" and how the life of Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady influenced this genre of living. Even the Grateful Dead are included (prior to reading this book, I did not realize that the drug acid also produced the genre of music titled "acid rock").
I would reccommend this book to anyone seeking the thrill of an acid trip without the acid. Wolfe's formal writing aspects deliever a message that perhaps, yes, the 60s was indeed a horror show, mirroring such events as Vietnam and lousy political leaders such as Nixon. Despite all of the chaos, a group of intelligent and charasmatic patrons decided to expand their horizons and indeed imerse themselves in the "Electric Kool Aid Test."
Rating: 4
Summary: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Comment: Necessary reading to understand the United States of the 1960's, and especially its' counterculture. Wolfe approaches from the view of the neutral journalist, giving the book that much more authenticity.
Presented here is the Haight Ashbury of San Francisco; Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters; The Warlocks(later the GD); Timothy Leary and the League for Spiritual Discovery; Neal Cassady; Jack Kerouac; Allen Ginsberg; Hunter S. Thompson; etc....
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?
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Title: On the Road by Jack Kerouac ISBN: 0140042598 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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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 |
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Title: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0802132952 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0060900075 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 February, 1963 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey ISBN: 0451163966 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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