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Drop City
T.C. Boyle. Penguin: 2004 (paperback). ISBN: 0142003808. 512 pages.
Guide not available
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Almost a decade ago, T.C. Boyle dropped a potent little bomb on the American reading scene in the form of his button-pushing novel The Tortilla Curtain - perhaps you remember the bile rising and your heart thudding in your throat as you followed the adventures of the family of illegal Mexican immigrants who unwillingly gate-crashing a gated community of well-meaning white California liberals. In Drop City, Boyle is back at what he does best, exploring the crash of cultures that takes place when two very different groups of people try to make a home in the same smallish place. In our opinion, Drop City does The Tortilla Curtain one better; TC is a great book for group or classroom discussion because it does get everyone so riled up, but is stymied somewhat by the extreme moral polarization of its characters (the Mexican immigrant family so sweet and good and the Californian liberal family so politically-correct despicable). The two equally appealing and annoying sets of characters that will fight it out in Drop City earn our loyalties and frustrations pretty much evenly on both sides.
The novel takes its name from an alternative-lifestyle commune taking its last great hash-brownie gasp in 1970 Southern California. With the commune going broke and the members bickering down to their last nerves over whose turn it is to wash the dishes with biodegradable soap, the commune's wealthy founder makes the bold decision to load up the magic buses and move the entire community to a truly isolated part of Western Alaska. Everyone's completely groovin' over this welcome change, this happy chance to coexist peacefully with the ultimate in nature in the ultimate in the outskirts of mainstream society. Of course, they're not taking into account what endless months of midnight sun and a complete absence of local strip mall health food stores may do to test their commitment to authentic unspoiled experience. Nor are they thinking about the other American drop-outs who have been happily carving out a hippie-free existence in the most isolated outpost of the United States, the no-nonsense trappers, hunters, lumberjacks, and fisherman who aren't exactly hip to the whole tie-dye thing. As the two groups wage an extremely volatile balance for co-existence, you, safe in your armchair, will be having the time of your life. And this is one of those rare books that picks up momentum and simply doesn't stop for breath - we read the last 50 to 100 pages literally gasping for air waiting to see who would come back alive.
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