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Maxine Swann

Flower Children Hardcover – May 10, 2007

by Maxine Swann (Author)

46 ratings

2.8 on Goodreads

1,001 ratings

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A full-length work inspired by the multiple award-winning short story follows the experiences of four siblings as they grow up in rural Pennsylvania under the guidance of devoutly hippie parents who believe in life without limits, a situation that involves innocence-compromising freedoms.

Print length

211 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Hardcover
Publication date

May 10, 2007
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
ISBN-10

1594489459
ISBN-13

978-1594489457
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This wistful, episodic second novel by Swann (Serious Girls) is made up of vignettes about four sibling "flower children" whose parents are Pennsylvania farm country back-to-the-land hippies. Swann portrays the free-floating '70s coming-of-age of these four siblings—Lu, Maeve (who narrates much of the novel), Tuck and Clyde—who delight in running freely in the countryside, but grow embarrassed by the unconventional practices of their politically active, casual-dressing parents. Their parents, Sam, a Harvard graduate, and Dee, a gardener and artist, built their own house, and though they aim to raise their children in an ideal world "in which nothing is lied about, whispered about, and nothing is ever concealed," the parents separate, and subsequent storylike chapters delineate their children's sometimes rocky confrontation with the world of TVs, junk food and schoolyard cliques. The parents' transient love interests make impressions on the children: Dee's live-in boyfriend, Bobby, avenges the shooting of the children's dogs by local hunters; later, the children set out to rid themselves of Sam's latest squeeze, a glamorous but dim-witted psychologist. Swann wisely forgoes childlike stream-of-consciousness narration in favor of lean, direct storytelling, a choice that makes this more substantial and rewarding than the vast majority of coming-of-age novels. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

A spellbinding novel-in-stories about the progeny of Harvard-educated hippies . . . Swann evokes the wonder of childhood with an almost hallucinatory precision. -- Vogue

Hypnotic. . . Swann's writing is mesmerizing . . . readers won't soon forget the portraits of flower children struggling to bloom in a very different world from the one in which they were first planted. -- People (four stars, Critic's Choice)

I thought about this book when I wasn't reading it, and I looked forward to returning to it and delving further. I was left wanting to know more about this family of unique characters. Like a missing friend who lives far away, but visits regularly. Not loss, anticipation. -- Indianapolis Star-Press

Maxine Swann is extraordinary at getting right down into the warm, funny, surreal, and heartbreaking folds of childhood and family life that are so rarely captured. Her writing is immaculate and completely transporting: serene and lively, lush and bare, with that magical, seemingly effortless quality that only the very talented of writers seem to possess. I didn't want this book to end. It is mesmerizing. -- Eliza Minot, author of The Brambles

Maxine Swann's Flower Children is a work of stunning lyricism and intense originality. It tells a story many of us have been waiting to hear: what happened to those children brought up in the wake of the dream of the '60s. What is remarkable about Maxine Swann's answer to that question, is that it never shies from complexity, and speaks in a voice of astonishing power and texture. -- Mary Gordon, author of Pearl

Provocative . . . Swann deftly and vividly encapsulates the flip side to an eccentric upbringing. -- Providence Journal

Swann expertly handles the complex emotions of both boys and girls as they progress in age to adolescence and adulthood . . . Swann is a restrained, elegant writer, who lets her sentences build slowly, as if she were assembling a structure brick by brick. I nearly emptied my pen of ink underlining passages. -- Bookforum

[Flower Children] is full of the visceral pleasures and anxieties of childhood -- LA Times Book Review

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Hardcover; First Edition (May 10, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 211 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594489459
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594489457
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,000,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28,505 in Family Saga Fiction
- #51,946 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #149,149 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
46 ratings

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5 star		51%
4 star		15%
3 star		13%
2 star		11%
1 star		10%

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Ashley Roehrick

A personal favorite

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 8, 2022

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Beautiful story I've read this book many times and have recommended it to my friends who also loved it ❤️

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AnandaK

Good enough to give away

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

I first read this book when I came across it in the local library. I went through it quite quickly, and ended up buying copies as gifts for my sister and a good friend. Anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s will recognize elements in this story, which reads somewhat like a memoir, although it is fictional. Maxine Swann clearly has a talent and honesty that comes across in her prose. The story follows the childhood years of four siblings who grow up in a 1970s hippy home with a charming, embarrassing, and eccentric (to put it mildly) father and a beautiful though somewhat befuddled mother. The children's points of view come across credibly as they move through developmental stages in which they either totally buy everything their parents teach them or start to reject the family quirks and traditions in favor of whatever might seem to be more "normal" or socially acceptable. I recommend this book; Swann is a hidden gem of a writer.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 15, 2015

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This is a good fiction that reasonably portrays some of what it was to grow up in a non christian home during the sixties in the USA. I was hoping when I ordered it that it was a non fiction, but it is a fiction. I found my self liking and disliking the personalities at different points in the story which gave the personalities a definite sense of reality even though it is a fiction.

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Dayna L. DiRienzo

Interesting but didn't live up to the hype

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 18, 2012

Verified Purchase

Very easy, quick read. Interesting concept and decent prose. Not a bad book, but certainly not the exceptional book the reviews and the book jacket made it out to be. In addition, this is the second time I trusted People Magazine's glowing recommendation; the first time was Little Children. Both got 4 stars. Neither was that great, so I won't be using their recommendations any more.

2 people found this helpful

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Ileana

Memory Lane

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

I randomly bought this from a thrift store years ago but lost it while moving. I pulled it up on internet but wasn't complete story. Glad I found it here, finally replaced the one I lost. Item arrived quickly and in perfect condition. I was a teen in the 70's and enjoyed it tremendously!!! This brings back fond memories!

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Nancy Black

and funny - and oh god I wish we could raise ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

Yes - nostalgic, but also insightful and penetrating, and funny - and oh god I wish we could raise our kids like that now.... I am part of the generation to which Maxine's parents belong. We protested and raged and fought our parents fiercely. Now I live in Australia. The book is so full of love. Thanks Maxine! And much love to your mum!

One person found this helpful

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KnittingMcNair

Somewhat Interesting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Somewhat interesting book. The story and characters are never really developed. Never felt a connection. Images of being free to play in the woods and do what you want as a child are interesting, but the author takes this too far with pot smoking, naked card playing adults. That would have frightened me as a child!

One person found this helpful

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PattiPeep

Rambling

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2008

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All in all, a book with great potential that disappointed. Its rambling style, coupled with constantly changing point of view (sometimes written in 1st person, other times in 3rd) as well as a lack of plot caused this series of stories about a delightful, quirky family to fall flat. I forced myself to finish it. Each story, I hoped for it to improve. It didn't. Sigh.

8 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Kate Hopkins

Playing at the Gypsy Life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

This novel reads like a series of sketches for short stories, none of which ever get fully developed into anything substantial. Maeve (the narrator), her sister Lu and her brothers Tyler and Clyde are the children of wealthy parents who have chosen to be hippy dropouts. After a few reasonably happy years - rather well captured in the opening chapter - the parents, for no apparent reason, drop out of their relationship with each other. The father (Sam?) embarks on a career of peripatetic relationships and short-lived jobs, and breezes in occasionally, several times with his bossy new girlfriend, to see his children. The mother paints, gets distracted, and takes the children to her rich mother for holidays. The children don't do anything much apart from observe their various wealthy dilettante relatives, and in the case of the two girls develop a crush on two local boys. None of the characters are at all well depicted, the background is thinly sketched, and the story - which cuts off before the narrator hits adolescence proper - never goes anywhere. For example - how would the children's hippy upbringing affect their later lives? Would they have a more normal adolescence in order to help the girls attend university? Does Sam's family go bankrupt due to their profligacy? What do Maeve and Lu want to do with their lives? We never learn any of this - all we get are meandering scenes of a lot of posh people having parties, or the kids having wild times with the local lads. It's deadly boring - rather like reading unedited versions from someone's not very good childhood diary. And it doesn't tell us much about the 'flower power' period either.

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Flower Children Hardcover – May 10, 2007

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Maxine Swann

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