The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by: Tom Wolfe
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Amazon.com Review:
They say if you remember the '60s, you weren't there. But,fortunately, Tom Wolfe was there, notebook in hand, politely decliningLSD while Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters fomented revolution,turning America on to a dangerously playful way of thinking as theirDay-Glo conveyance, Further, made the most influential bus ride sinceRosa Parks's. By taking On the Road's heroNeal Cassady as his driver on the cross-country revival tour anddrawing on his own training as a magician, Kesey made Further into abully pulpit, and linked the beat epoch with hippiedom. PaulMcCartney's Many Yearsfrom Now cites Kesey as a key influence on his trippy Magical MysteryTour film. Kesey temporarily renounced his literary magic forthe cause of "tootling the multitudes"--making a spectacle ofhimself--and Prankster RobertStone had to flee Kesey's wild party to get his life's workdone. But in those years, Kesey's life was his work, and Wolfeinfinitely multiplied the multitudes who got tootled by writing thismajor literary-journalistic monument to a resonant pop-culturemoment.
Kesey's theatrical metamorphosis from the distinguished author of One Flew over the Cuckoo'sNest to the abominable shaman of the "Acid Test" soirees thatlaunched TheGrateful Dead required Wolfe's Day-Glo prose account to endure(though Kesey's own musings in Demon Box are noslouch either). Even now, Wolfe's book gives what Wolfe clearly gotfrom Kesey: a contact high. --Tim Appelo
Product Description:
"An American classic" (Newsweek) that defined a generation. “An astonishing book” (The New York Times Book Review) and an unflinching portrait of Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, and the 1960s.
They say if you remember the '60s, you weren't there. But,fortunately, Tom Wolfe was there, notebook in hand, politely decliningLSD while Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters fomented revolution,turning America on to a dangerously playful way of thinking as theirDay-Glo conveyance, Further, made the most influential bus ride sinceRosa Parks's. By taking On the Road's heroNeal Cassady as his driver on the cross-country revival tour anddrawing on his own training as a magician, Kesey made Further into abully pulpit, and linked the beat epoch with hippiedom. PaulMcCartney's Many Yearsfrom Now cites Kesey as a key influence on his trippy Magical MysteryTour film. Kesey temporarily renounced his literary magic forthe cause of "tootling the multitudes"--making a spectacle ofhimself--and Prankster RobertStone had to flee Kesey's wild party to get his life's workdone. But in those years, Kesey's life was his work, and Wolfeinfinitely multiplied the multitudes who got tootled by writing thismajor literary-journalistic monument to a resonant pop-culturemoment.
Kesey's theatrical metamorphosis from the distinguished author of One Flew over the Cuckoo'sNest to the abominable shaman of the "Acid Test" soirees thatlaunched TheGrateful Dead required Wolfe's Day-Glo prose account to endure(though Kesey's own musings in Demon Box are noslouch either). Even now, Wolfe's book gives what Wolfe clearly gotfrom Kesey: a contact high. --Tim Appelo
Product Description:
"An American classic" (Newsweek) that defined a generation. “An astonishing book” (The New York Times Book Review) and an unflinching portrait of Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, and the 1960s.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- An Awesome Book
This book will provide you with a lot of knowledge about pop culture and the hippie movement origin, evolution and expansion worldwide. It must be an obligatory purchase if you are interested in psychedelia.
Rating: 
- In short, an LSD book by a guy who never did LSD.
Does the caption paint a strong enough picture? It's five-thirty in the morning and i just finished the last page of one incredibly condescending, disingenuous look at 60's drug culture by an admitted conservative hanger-on with no tangible ties or affiliations to the scene whatsoever. This book did NOT define a generation, and frankly, fellow reviewers, its time to stop parroting phrases from the dust jackets and start developing actual opinions for yourself. I'm hardly a literary buff myself but ... Read More
Rating: 
- Worth reading, even if you disagree with his conservative take on the hippies
My journalist heroes are usually the lefties who expose the horrible outcomes of greed.You know the type: Upton Sinclair, Michael Moore, and Amy Goodman.They pop the tinsel-draped myths of corporations and nations, and reveal the horrible outcomes of excessive power.It was hard, then, to read a conservative journalist's skewering of my own 1960s countercultural heroes.Ken Kesey and his band of experimental hippies get fully cynical treatment at the skilled hands of Wolfe.In Wolfe's hands ... Read More
Rating: - Loved it
I think this is a great book. I am still currently reading it but I love it.
When your reading it you feel like you are right there experiencing every adventure they go on. Every one.
I wasn't alive or even thought of during this time but I now know what it would be like if I was. " Your either on the bus, or off the bus"
Rating: 
- Drugs, obviously.
The only possible explaination for this atrocious book is that Tom Wolfe himself was partaking of the mind altering chemicals.
As someone who himself has taken acid upwards of thirty times, and who has since realized what an utterly vacuous waste of space and time it is, I can say with authority that Tom Wolfe must have been under the influence when he wrote this atrocious book.It's just not enjoyable on ANY level.He rambles on for pages in what I assume is his attempt to convey ... Read More
- An Awesome BookThis book will provide you with a lot of knowledge about pop culture and the hippie movement origin, evolution and expansion worldwide. It must be an obligatory purchase if you are interested in psychedelia.
- In short, an LSD book by a guy who never did LSD.Does the caption paint a strong enough picture? It's five-thirty in the morning and i just finished the last page of one incredibly condescending, disingenuous look at 60's drug culture by an admitted conservative hanger-on with no tangible ties or affiliations to the scene whatsoever. This book did NOT define a generation, and frankly, fellow reviewers, its time to stop parroting phrases from the dust jackets and start developing actual opinions for yourself. I'm hardly a literary buff myself but ... Read More
- Worth reading, even if you disagree with his conservative take on the hippiesMy journalist heroes are usually the lefties who expose the horrible outcomes of greed.You know the type: Upton Sinclair, Michael Moore, and Amy Goodman.They pop the tinsel-draped myths of corporations and nations, and reveal the horrible outcomes of excessive power.It was hard, then, to read a conservative journalist's skewering of my own 1960s countercultural heroes.Ken Kesey and his band of experimental hippies get fully cynical treatment at the skilled hands of Wolfe.In Wolfe's hands ... Read More
- Loved itI think this is a great book. I am still currently reading it but I love it.
When your reading it you feel like you are right there experiencing every adventure they go on. Every one.
I wasn't alive or even thought of during this time but I now know what it would be like if I was. " Your either on the bus, or off the bus"
- Drugs, obviously.The only possible explaination for this atrocious book is that Tom Wolfe himself was partaking of the mind altering chemicals.
As someone who himself has taken acid upwards of thirty times, and who has since realized what an utterly vacuous waste of space and time it is, I can say with authority that Tom Wolfe must have been under the influence when he wrote this atrocious book.It's just not enjoyable on ANY level.He rambles on for pages in what I assume is his attempt to convey ... Read More
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