Drop City "In recent times, both Jonathan Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS and Stephen L. Carter's THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK have been cited as examples of that elusive creature "the great American novel." Excellent novels they undoubtedly are, but for me, T.C. Boyle's DROP CITY is more deserving than either of such an accolade. This is Boyle's most commercial, and most serious novel to date, and describes the experiences of an idealistic Californian hippie commune transplanted to the wilds of Alaska — and what happens as these two vastly different communities collide. A wonderful evocation of 1970s America, peopled with a terrific array of characters, which deftly explore issues of self-sufficiency and anti-establishment politics, it excels in every department, and has much more mass-market appeal than his previous works." |