From Seventh Grade on (& still now) I found myself absolutely fascinated by the 1960’s and the freedom of the era. Every time a school project came about, I would find some way to focus it around this time period, which leads me to convincing my mother to purchase this, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and many other books. At the time I first read this (Seventh Grade) I completely and utterly did not understand it; I found myself attempting to “look cool” by bringing it with me everywhere. Years later I find it on my book shelf and pick it up again, read it cover to cover and sit contemplating the words I just in took. Wolfe got mixed reviews for this novel, this historic journey and though I can see the point of the negativity, I can’t say I fully agree. Wolfe was able to describe even a few moments in an era, that from all of my research I can only label as indescribable. There are pages in this novel that I snored through, but more pages that I laughed at, awed at and read over again for pure enjoyment. In his best moments Wolfe is able to transform his readers mind to that of himself within his novel and as accurately as he can, create the feeling of this era.

I was stoned when I read this so I have absolutely no idea what it was even about. Just kidding. Tom Wolfe at his best. Loved it from the very first line: “That’s good thinking there Cool Breeze.”

This is one of my favorite books of my early years. The writing is emotionally evocative and tingles all senses. It was one of my great thrills to meet Ken Kesey, Mountain Girl, Babbs and several other lesser pranksters at the Borders Books in New Town when they came through Chicago in the late 90s. I captured all their signatures on my hard cover, reader's club first edition, but sadly never had the opportunity to meet Tom Wolfe.

A mega doozy! A unique faux/dopey emblem of hippie Americana that blows angelic trumpets in your face with the celebration of a dadaesque topsy-turvy rover's lifestyle. So, oh so VERY unique. Is it all nonfiction? Really?! Or is it a horror film in disguise (no, no, no, just hear me out!) wherein body snatchers captivate the fragile minds of the youth, ensnaring them in major LSD consumption, "intersubjectivity," codependent thinking and a fantastical creation of genuine communal attachment? The hippies were a group that's just (if not more, at the time) self-aware & as conceited as all of them are. All about the "me."

Once the novel is one-fourth over, it finally becomes accessible, cracking open like some golden egg. And what pours out of the almost-mystical experience--following a group of misfits who grok over the long roads & ever-expanding horizons of the motherland--is something unforgettable, unattainable for any other writer than this one, the overly ambitious writer of "Bonfire of the Vanities," Mr. Tom Wolfe. Reading "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" is like following the Pied Piper into some sweet oblivion, acting as stupid foolish children, except that your parents will never find out nor be sad about your departure.

"You're either on the bus or off the bus." Yup, there are life-lessons aplenty to be harvested from this utmost jewel, this crystallized ruby, as important to historians as it is for creative writers.

This one requires your utmost attention, reader. Bring it into your own personal movie, which plays out in a singular, long, mystifying strip of Day-Glo Highlighter acid-&-lemon green!

Tom Wolfe, RIP

Been so long since I forced myself to finish this--how could such an interesting subject become 300+ pages of wishing I could gouge out my eyes.

WILD that creative non fiction is still a thing when this book Completed it.

Wowee folks! What an enthralling read! Wolfe writes and riffs with so much colour and smashes together all the formats and notes and interviews and footage into such a seamless and just MEGA vibey monster. Such an innovative and vivid way of telling a real life story.

It's like you're actually there. We the reader are On The Bus vibing with these characters, gettin high with them, running from the law with them. The scene builds and explodes and then dies down and we all go our separate ways and we feel it all with them like a whole era jammed into 350odd pages.

Sometimes hard to keep up with Wolfe's flow, and a handful of ~AAAAAA~ bad trip moments. But in all it's a fascinating exploration of counter-culture, human connection and LSD, good enough to just scrape into the 5star bracket.

Reading this book made me feel like I was trapped inside of it. The mostly nonsensical world that Kesey and the Pranksters lived in would have made (somehow) even less sense if it were not for Wolfe’s third-person immersion into the scene and subjective descriptions of the adventures “on the bus”.

On top of the world-building of Prankster life, the book addresses the cultural relevance of the “beautiful people” or “probation generation” in context and creates a messianic story about Kesey’s role in acid culture across states, countries and continents.

This book isn't going to earn anything but a big COULD NOT FINISH from me. I admit it might be a revolting Czech translation which makes this piece of literature absolutely unbearable but mostly I think it's just the fact that this is a very, VERY bad book.
Can't recommend to anyone. Huge waste of time.

I’m so glad someone was sober enough to capture this amazing insanity, and that it was Tom Wolfe! So funny and wild. 5 stars because it’s about so much more than a bus and acid trips when you put it into a historical context. So crazy to see how massive cultural change happened before the internet.

It’s also a fascinating study on charismatic leaders and groupthink. Kesey was insaaaaaaane. But maybe in a good way? Also, I definitely see how this paved the way for Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.

Am I sounding like one of those Goodreaders who thinks they’re an Editor for the NYT? Sorry! Just love the book.

excerpt from a history paper I wrote on this book, which I posted to dcbooks:



"While the book doesn’t hold answers, it is a great read for anyone who has ever been part of a subculture. It puts the story out there in a way that is honest and fair, showing not just the idealism, but also the grime and the violence and the difficulties of rebellion against the norm and the inherent dangers in basing a movement on a mind altering drug. It might be easy to reject the story as a tale of mistaken adventures of the past, but only out of context from the things which came next. The garden that Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters planted was set in very fertile ground. This group changed portions of the world forever. From their ideas came the rave scene, the flash mob scene, the multimedia party scene, psychedelic art, and more. They had planted a garden where plants are still mutating and changing today. Many of those movements spawned from their ideas have also died away and been forgotten, but those have spawned yet more movements and new ideas. It’s a marathon run of freaks, taking the torch and still heading on and on toward “FURTHUR” and to the next set of mysteries."

I read this book ---
and 'The Right Stuff' when a 'yoga friend, (no less), recommend I read 'Tom Wolfe' (Before knowing of Goodreads).

Being older --late to the party (never considered this book when I actually lived in Berkeley attending Cal during the early 70's), -- what I enjoyed most about 'both' this book and 'The Right Stuff' was the historical trip down memory lane of a culture that comes around once in a lifetime.

Tom Wolfe is another one of those talented odd balls. (funny-witty-crazy). What's not to like? (a small diet of Tom Wolfe is as good for the soul as an hour of Vinyasa Flow).

Its all about 'balance'!

As you might expect, it's as interesting as reading about other people's drug trips. Which is to say, not at all.