Customer Reviews

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've savored just about every word this man's ever written. I still vividly recall him at a lecture he gave in Berkley in 1972 standing at the lectern in his white Gatsby suit, starched pink shirt and nattily knotted tie. I can't recall the ostensible topic. He covered so much ground and had such a wealth of ideas and insights that the topic was irrelevent anyway. He's always been our keenest observer of American culture, on subjects ranging from hippies, art snobs, wall street, the space race, to the Southern nouveau-riches.

In terms of unadulterated reading enjoyment, however, this book is still my favorite. He captures the era perfectly. This was the period in the mid-sixties when the hippie philosophy and lifestyle was still genuine, before it had become commercially exploited by the mass media, before Manson and Altamont and the seeds of evil. It was an uncorrupted, pure, joyous movement and moment. Owsley was the bay area chemist who produced hits of Sandoz-quality acid that sent the children out dancing blissfully through the night and into the purple dawn. It truly looked like a brave new world. If you are young and can't undertand why former hippies wax nostalgic about it, it's primarily (at least to me) because that tiny era of innocence can never be recreated.

If ever there were a work of either fiction or non fiction that captured the essence, freedom, and expectation of a marvelous era, this is it!

One of the great non fiction works of the 20th century!

BEK

"You're either on the bus...or off the bus." This is the choice facing you as you begin to read Tom Wolfe's classic saga of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters as they test the boundries of consciousness and test the limits of other human's patience. What is almost as amazing as the lengths to which the pranksters went to enjoy their existence on Earth, is the style that Wolfe has chosen to narrate the adventures. Brillliantly blending stream of consciousness writing and a journalistic sense of description, Wolfe immerses himself in Kesey's world in an attempt to understand the thoughts of a group of adults who would paint a school bus with day-glo colors and trek across the United States with pitchers full of acid and a video camera keeping an eye on it all. Who could resist a chance to find out what it was like to spend a quaint evening in the woods reaching altered states of consciousness with a group of Hell's Angels, or taking a peek inside the world of the budding hippie stars led by a youthful Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Whether or not you approve of massive drug use will not impact your liking of this book, and for anyone who takes an interest in the counterculture movement this book is a must-read. Also acts as a perfect companion to Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Now you must decide, "Can YOU pass the acid test?"

I've savored just about every word this man's ever written. I still vividly recall him at a lecture he gave in Berkley in 1972 standing at the lectern in his white Gatsby suit, starched pink shirt and nattily knotted tie. I can't recall the ostensible topic. He covered so much ground and had such a wealth of ideas and insights that the topic was irrelevent anyway. He's always been our keenest observer of American culture, on subjects ranging from hippies, art snobs, wall street, the space race, to the Southern nouveau-riches.

In terms of unadulterated reading enjoyment, however, this book is still my favorite. He captures the era perfectly. This was the period in the mid-sixties when the hippie philosophy and lifestyle was still genuine, before it had become commercially exploited by the mass media, before Manson and Altamont and the seeds of evil. It was an uncorrupted, pure, joyous movement and moment. Owsley was the bay area chemist who produced hits of Sandoz-quality acid that sent the children out dancing blissfully through the night and into the purple dawn. It truly looked like a brave new world. If you are young and can't undertand why former hippies wax nostalgic about it, it's primarily (at least to me) because that tiny era of innocence can never be recreated. The waters of cynisism have washed away all the bridges to that idyllic past. The era can, however, thanks to Tom Wolfe, be revisited. I urge you to take the tour.

Let me preface this review by saying I was not alive in the 60's, and I never talked to my parents about their experiences, yet through this book, I feel as though I shared in the madness that were the Acid Tests. Tom Wolfe's masterpiece "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," is an absolutely amazing book written about a group of Hippies hell-bent on spreading they're organized chaos throughout the nation. Apart from the subject matter (which I'll get to) this book is as well written as you could imagine. Somehow, Wolfe captured the experiences of the Merry Pranksters with his writing style. His use of the elipses (...), run on sentances, and his insightful commentary actually puts the reader into this experience. The experience itself is a whirlwind journey accross the US, in a cloud of pot-smoke, a rush of speed and a series of mescaline and lsd induced hallucinations. All the while, this seemingly nonsensical journey is carefully laid out as only Wolfe could have done. To read a book about 15 men and women that travel the nation not knowing right from left, Wolfe explains everything in stunning imagery and intense detail. Whether or not you approve or liked the hippies movement, and even if your offended by drug related subject matter, you should read this book. As a purely literary work, it's easily top 10, and as a story of the acid movement and a historical look at the 60's, there's none better.

This book probably gives the most detailed and essential guide to the sixties. Being a teenager now, i have no idea what the time period was like, but after reading Tom Wolfes book, i have a pretty good idea.

The book delves into the heart of 60's America, giving (in as much detail as possible i think) a wierd and wonderful account of people, pranks and LSD. The book is written in a style i have never come across before, Wolfe using very inventive terms. The style itself is used mainly to re-create the feel of the time period, getting the feel of being 'On The Bus', and providing fantastic results.

Kesey and the Merry Pranksters aren't given bias either. They aren't praised or put down and that gives the book an extra strength. Wolfe using a 3rd person account, simply tells a story (and what a story).

Some parts of the book are somewhat longwinded, but on a whole its a masterpiece, quite simply a classic. Its certainly different, sometimes providing a somewhat LSD account of things, but wasn't that the sixties in a nut-shell? Probably. This is what Tom Wolfe set out to create, and how well he manages it.

Reading it now you'll think, "Wouldn't it be great to experiance the sixties for myself. Being on the bus, grooving with Kesey and the Pranksters, playing the cops and robbers game..." and then you realise you only went and got born in the 80's!

Still, opening the book again will transport there in the comfort of your own home. 'ELECTRIC' and 'KOOL', a must-read.

Regardless of one's ultimate attitudes about the permissive atmosphere that prevailed during the Pandora's Box that became the 1960's, Thomas Wolfe's detailed, passionate and fascinating portrait of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters makes for required reading.

Whether for ill or well, Kesey and the Pranksters are responsible for creating much of what the popular masses call "The 60's". While reading this book, that mere (and ironic) fact becomes ever so clear.

When I recently visited Kesey at his ranch in Oregon, I asked him if Wolfe "got it right". Kesey's response? "Yes he did. But understand that he (Wolfe) gives a real East Coast version of what was essentially a West Coast phenomenon."

What I think that means essentialy validates many of the other positive reviews of this book: Wolfe uncannily possesses the ability to be "in the Pranster's world, but not of it".

This means that while Wolfe is fully willing and able to passionately incorperate the unique linguistic acrobatics of Kesey and the Pranksters in relating the narrative, he maintains somehow a cool, objective distance from all the proceedings. Kesey might be saying that while Wolfe was certainly "on the bus", he was never "ON THE BUS!".

This distance is communicated and maintained by Wolfe's refusal to judge the shennanigans. He never really says "yay" or "nay" to the invention of the "counter culture" (whatever in the hell that means). He relates the consequences both natural and man-made that befalls on such behavior, but never comes out from behind the page and says "booh!"

He wisely leaves all moral judgement in the place where it rightly belongs: in the hearts and minds of the readers.

It is not a book for the weak of back, heart or mind. It will challenge the reader as well as entertain for Wolfe pulls no punches and that is a treatment most appropriate for the Hemingway-esque machismo frat boy jock mentality that underlies all of Kesey's art.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a excellent example of brilliant reporting. It combines stunning writing with cool logic and impassioned empathetic distance. This is a must read.

Wow. I really did not realize the social, economical, and cultural importance of the drug acid. Tom Wolfe brilliantly explains how the once legal drug influenced a whole generation of "merry pranksters," expanding their minds and consciousness. "Electric Kool-Aid" describes the travels of the Merry Pranksters (a group of "hippies" on a pilgrimage from Cali to New York) and the colorful characters that join them. From the Hell's Angels to Ginsberg, Wolfe informs the reader of various "acid tests" and how the life of Ken Kesey and Neal Cassady influenced this genre of living. Even the Grateful Dead are included (prior to reading this book, I did not realize that the drug acid also produced the genre of music titled "acid rock").
I would reccommend this book to anyone seeking the thrill of an acid trip without the acid. Wolfe's formal writing aspects deliever a message that perhaps, yes, the 60s was indeed a horror show, mirroring such events as Vietnam and lousy political leaders such as Nixon. Despite all of the chaos, a group of intelligent and charasmatic patrons decided to expand their horizons and indeed imerse themselves in the "Electric Kool Aid Test."

Two chapters in I'm heading to Wikipedia to see if this is fiction like other Wolfe novels I have enjoyed or a true story. This is the quisistential book of the 60s, the influence of LSD and how America drastically changed from the conservative 50s to the forgettable 70s. This is not a quick read, and frankly, I could have stood about 50 pages fewer. But it is so bizarre, so unbelievable, and so well documented that it is a must read.

From a personal perspective, I list my minor LSD experiences of the early 70s as one of the top 10 most important experiences of my life. This book completes the story and shows the actual history of LSD and the glorious years before it was a crime and before the drug had been widely discovered. The crux of the book is that Ken Kesey, leader of the Merry Pranksters, chooses to turn on America including the Hells Angels, to an alternative lifestyle, the self discovery of LSD phase of mind enhancing. Such is the journey that Kesey attempts to introduce to his band and to America on a cross country journey aboard a 1939 International Harvester bus painted in neon colors. Yes, welcome back to the beginning of the hippie culture.

While I do not consider the book in my Top 10 list as suggested by so many, this is a worthwhile read I recommend by anyone wanting to explore America culture and one of our greatest writers of the last 50 years.

Boy, where to begin. To start I must say Tom Wolfe is truly a gifted writer, this book works because is was written by a non-judgemental third party, in this case Wolfe, who told you how it was. Wolfe lets you form your own opinion, without his getting in the way, though on most points you would tend to agree with him. This is not just a story of Kesey and the Pranksters, Wolfe gets all of the little nuances,i.e the passages on Hesse, Nietzche etc. could they have fit the bill for a prankster? The book only has one major flaw, but it is not Tom Wolfe's or Ken Kesey's fault. The fault is the book came out in 1968, or it was published in a magazine I dont know I was not alive then, acid experimentation was pretty new and hardly anyone, at least no one in the book, experienced a flashback. So in turn the book seems like an add for acid use, which will turn off so more conservative readers, and it doesnt bring to light some of the possible detremental effects, but its no fault of Wolfe, so read this great piece of literature, not propganda.

I felt like I fell right into the acid scene circa 1960+ as I read through this delirious adventure. It seems too outrageous to be true at times, coming from the personal accounts of the Pranksters and the author, but mostly from the Prankster's written and video records. The great thing about the Merry Pranksters is that they took video and sound equipment everywhere with them and many were writers so the records of their adventures exist beyond the almost certainly hazy personal recollections.

So the acid tests were really conducted, and the Merry Pranksters were a real group of crazy intellectuals. As many reviewers have said, this book has by far the best descriptions of acid trips than any I've ever read before. Yes, there is some gobbledy-gook and strange punctuation but it all adds to the overall uniquely dramatic effect of the book. You can't expect a High School English teacher's grammar in a book detailing acid adventures.

This book is also an excellent insight into birth of the hippies' drug culture and the events that led up to the peak and eventual downfall of the hippy pandemonium in the sixties. What is special about this story is that it details and explains the events leading up to the mass consumption and popularity of acid, prior the late 60's and prior to it being made illegal in most states. Nobody even knew what the stuff was or that anything like it existed at the time the Merry Pranksters first got hold of it. I would venture to say most people would have no idea how the acid revolution started and this is the key to finding out, while having a great time reading a book about the spawning of a unique American culture, which reads pretty fast for 400+ pages.