Unrealistic and hollywood-esque view of a cooperative community. Also an Incredibly depressing and fatalistic main character. I recommend Ecotopia instead if you want a better Utopian environmental fiction.

Loved, loved, loved this book. Read it. Almost immediately

This book started off interesting enough, but I did not like the second half. The first half was about Bit, a boy born into a hippie commune. It was fun to read about their life there. The second half was Bit, all grown up, in the 'real world' Bit, a supposedly sensitive soul seemed like a 'bit' of annoying dick once he reached adulthood. It also kinda veered off path into the furute, with America being quarantined. It seemed like the author got bored with one story line and decided to write in others.

This book was such a joy to read.

What a writer Lauren Groff is! This book appears at first to be a quirky story of a hippie commune in the 60s-70s, but somehow it subtly changes to embracing much bigger themes: how we live in the world together, how we treat our world, how we find and build our own heaven on earth, what it is to be a good person. Even if you just want to read this book to follow the plot line from main character Bit's birth to self-realizing adulthood, that should provide lots of reading enjoyment. I also highly recommend the author's first novel, The Monsters of Templeton. You can really find yourself in these books as you read about characters finding themselves!

Extremely irritating and trite look at communal life, drowning in gooey sentimentality. Didn't believe one word.

I adore Lauren Groff. Adore her. Her first book snatched my heart, and her book of short stories delighted me. I have to admit, though, that the description of this one didn't excite me. But I shouldn't have doubted this extraordinarily gifted author: This book is absolutely beautiful.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It is very well-written and held my interest throughout. As a child of the '60's, it was interesting to see what was going on in the counter-culture while I was growing up. Recommended.

Phenomenal!