Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune (CounterCulture series) [Paperback]

Margaret Hollenbach (Author), David Farber (Series Editor), Beth Bailey (Series Editor)

Book Description

Series: CounterCulture series | Publication Date: September 30, 2004

In 1970 Margaret Hollenbach, an idealistic twenty-five-year-old graduate school dropout, changed her name and gave up her possessions to join a commune known as The Family, located in Taos, New Mexico. The Family believed in "group marriage" and practiced its own version of Gestalt therapy, sometimes coercively. Hollenbach spent only a few months in this intense environment, but the lessons she learned have shaped her life. She tells the story of the young woman she was then in an unsparingly honest memoir.

"Powerfully told and beautifully written. Hollenbach has a marvelous ear for dialogue. The Family comes across as a fascinating experiment in friendship, open sexuality, and group dynamics. But it is also revealed as a quasi-cult led by a charismatic leader whose hold on his followers is frightening and bizarre."--David Farber, co-editor of UNM Press's CounterCulture Series

"In Lost and Found, critical intelligence and vivid story-telling achieve a fine balance. With disarming honesty and grace, Hollenbach not only charts a personal journey toward self-acceptance, but also re-creates the gritty, complex reality behind the 60s generation, whose search for transformation turned the American dream inside out."--Molly Best Tinsley, author of Throwing Knives (winner, Oregon Book Award, 2001)

For a discussion guide on Lost and Found and suggestions for further reading, click on the "Read more" link below.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book reveals the dark side of the idealism of young people in the 1960's." (Salem Statesman Journal, Oregon )

"[Hollenbach] tells the story of the young woman she was then in an unsparingly honest memoir." (Ashland Daily Times )

". . a well-told story of a woman's unusual search for meaning and love." (RALPH Magazine )

From the Publisher

"Powerfully told and beautifully written. Hollenbach has a marvelous ear for dialogue. The Family comes across as a fascinating experiment in friendship, open sexuality, and group dynamics. But it is also revealed as a quasi-cult led by a charismatic leader whose hold on his followers is frightening and bizarre."—David Farber, co-editor of UNM Press’s CounterCulture Series

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 183 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826334636
• ISBN-13: 978-0826334633
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT ! ! !, August 29, 2004

By 

Danae L. Willson "Danae Loran Willson" (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune (CounterCulture series) (Paperback)

Tom Wolfe meets Margaret Mead -- in the first person. From inside the head, body and soul. Evocative and familiar. Sexualy revealing and honest. A piece of the 60s told in the most intimate and reflective of voices. One word to this author, "MORE!"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but short on content and experience, November 11, 2007

By 

cocktail sage "cocktail sage" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune (CounterCulture series) (Paperback)

very interesting first person account of a young woman who spent a short time [several weeks (?)] living in one of the many short lived 60s communes. Based on my personal experience living in groups, it gives a very realistic picture of the confusion of the new person trying to understand the rules and gain acceptance, and the inevitable discovery that things aren't as rosy as they were presented to the outside.

The book is quite short, generally well written, although there is a fair amount of what one might consider 'filler'.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, enlightening, December 23, 2004

By 

Kenneth Willing (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune (CounterCulture series) (Paperback)

This is the most fascinating book I've read in years. Though structured around one pivotal event in the author's life -- her experience in a utopian commune -- any moment or facet of her life as a whole can come up in the telling at any time, in vivid synchronicity. As an impassioned personal quest (the "Lost" aspect), the story breathlessly sweeps you forward like a thriller. But as "Found"ness, the book also has blissful built-in non-linearity and can be read the way one reads the I Ching -- jumping in anywhere. (As a matter of fact, the Ching itself keeps popping up throughout the story.) One reviewer has said "You don't want this book to end", and that's true, but luckily it doesn't have to end.

Hollenbach has an astonishing ability to get the cadences of natural speech onto the printed page. This is one of the great pleasures of the book: The characters and the protagonist-narrator herself speak so livingly off the page it can be almost eerie.

"Lost and Found" is a rich, profound, enlightening book.