Acid is dropped, health food is consumed in abundance, a cult leader is worshipped, and someone literally hugs a tree. At first glance, this doesn't sound like everyone's cup of herbal tea.
However, Groff expands the novel beyond a period piece. Spanning from 1965 to 2018, the reader is able to observe the changes that take place within Arcadia. Big dreams of living with the land (not on it) quickly crash into economic realities, and relationships are complicated by sex and drugs. Though the plot seems predictable at first, Groff's novel manages to draw me in from its opening.
As Bit matures, he begins to piece together his complicated surroundings. He slowly discovers that his parents, Abe and Hannah, are two very different people. Bit desperately wants his parents to stay together. However, in a world where men have multiple wives and the concept of family is foreign, he fears they will not.
When Bit hits adolescence, everything changes. Arcadia is open to the world around it, and is quickly filled to the brim with teen runaways and drug burnouts. The once young and innocent children of Arcadia have grown into troubled and rebellious teenagers. By the time he is 14, the commune has collapsed.
Decades later, Bit has become a photography teacher in New York. He is married with a daughter, and in 2018 returns to Arcadia with his dying mother. Bit believes that he was once a happy as a child, and that his parents were once happy in their relationship. However, after further contemplation he concludes that it is "best to distrust this retrospective radiance: gold dust settles over memory and makes it shine."
Though not a plot-driven page-turner in the traditional sense, I found it hard to tear myself away.
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