Customer Reviews

Bohemia: Where Art, Angst, Love and Strong Coffee Meet

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Herbert Gold has provided us with a history of Bohemia. He deals with Greenwich Village, San Francisco, Berkeley and any other place where the Bohemia mentality reigns supreme. This is a grand exploration of great artists, poets, thinkers, anarchists and dreamers. He presents the argument that Bohemia is ultimately a state of mind. You may be in Paris or Chapel Hill or Prague but you can descend into your own private Bohemia. There is discussion of the Beats and hippies, of course, but also of Paris in the twenties. He discusses Israeli bohemain Haim Hefer and French chanteur Serge Gainsbourg. ( I obtained a longtime fondness for Gainsbourg music from curiosity after reading this book. There are many unheralded madmen and women that get their fifteen minutes of fame in this book. It is a thrilling ride through a state of mind that ought to be more prevalent than it is. I felt excited to be alive after reading this book. The exaltation with life intensifies everytime I browse through this book. It goes well with ginseng tea, espresso, whiskey or beer. It is a great companion on bus rides and train ventures and it reads well on the beach. Herbert Gold finally gives due credit to the fine art of lazing around and dreaming away.

I'll admit, I was a little lost at first because Gold had the tendency to provide long lists of names of writers, musicians, artists, actors, etc. that all contributed to the Bohemian culture; sometimes I didn't know whether they were famous or not. Fortunately, with my computer by my side, this book became a huge learning tool. "Bohemia" doesn't go into extensive detail about one particular place, rather, Gold writes about many places, such as: Paris, North Beach, La Jolla, Greenwich Village/Chelsea, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Cincinnati, Miami.. even Israel, to show that Bohemia is not an ethnicity or class, rather a personal aura or lifestyle that can be carried anywhere in the world. Gold wrote "Bohemia" like a journal providing many of his personal opinions of these people or places in a descriptive language. Much of the text is focused toward California and New York starting from the 1950s; he revisits some of the places in the 90's where he describes how things have changed: people actually had a traditional career change, or died, a new generation of devotees took over the town or a jem of a cafe or bookstore closed down. Overall, Gold has a nice balance in storytelling, dialogue, narrative and facts about Bohemia. If you're really curious, I think it could be used as a guide for future travel or exploration in literature revolving around the Bohemian theme.