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Title: Arcadia

Author: Lauren Groff

Narrator: Andrew Garman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-01-12

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

In the fields and forests of western New York State in the late 1960s, several dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding what becomes a famous commune centred on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. The Arcadians rise and fall across three generations and what evolves is an astonishingly beautiful and gripping novel.

Members Reviews:

Lyrical, beautiful, stunning

I loved this book, even though it is not the type of thing I normally read -- very emotional, told from a child's point of view in the beginning. The writing was so good and the setting of the commune seemed so true and the emotions so appealing -- I'm drawn to stories about the 60s and hippie outposts and, like another reviewer, I remember the quirky names and the hippie language. You can be cynical about it now, but it was a very charmed time (and did extend into the 80s in some places, and even beyond). The book captures the charm and the quirkiness and the depth of emotion and does so without manipulating the reader into following a twisty plot. It's all very real-seeming and human and honest and very readable and beautiful as well. If the ending of the book was not as appealing as the beginning, it was good in its own way and, it did not ruin the effect for me. I looked at the adult Bit as the product of that incredible childhood and complicated relationship with his mother, a relationship that the author depicted well. What we see of each other is only the tip of the iceberg. Beautiful book! Highly recommended!

Gimme Shelter

OK, let me start by saying I grew up in the 60's and came of age in the mid 70's. I had friends who joined communes, and despite never having joined one I lived the life for a few years of a young man looking for meaning in alternative culture - no meat, folk music, living close the land, putting faith in growing yourown and rejecting most of main stream culture's values. That in and of itself doesn't make me all that unique, but as we get further and further from that time I look back and still wonder what happened? What happened to the idealism? Why did it fall apart? What happened to all the believers? Lauren Groff's Arcadia looks at all these questions through the eyes of her main character, Bit Stone. Arcadia has become one of my favorite books that I've read in a long time. The book isn't perfect, there are a few flaws and it lags in a few places, but it's kind of like life. The kind of book where I couldn't wait to get back to it, where I just sat and pondered after finishing it, where I could drop into it and just get lost. She captures the time, the idealism, the disillusionment, the drugs, the free love, the naivete, the hope and so much more. I read Groff's Fate and Furies and loved it's look at marriage and all it's shadows and sunlight and little lies and deceptions, but this book is phenomenal. She does an amazing job of narrating the protangonist's thoughts as he goes from birth, to child, to adolescent to adult to middle age. It captures all of the emotions and experiences of each of those ages - dream state, innocence, confusion, depression, grace, wonder, imagination, curiosity, elation, belief, loss, love, longing, joy, profound sadness and everything in between. I give great thanks to Lauren Groff for having written this book.