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• Bookseller review

  New journalism, non-fiction novel...?

  ...however you define it, Tom Wolfe’s 1968 account of the novelist Ken Kesey’s psychedelic bus ride across America with his "Merry Pranksters" established a style of free-associating, hyperbolic writing (count the exclamation marks!!!) that spawned countless imitations – a vivid look at the countercultures hippest bus trippers

  Review by Nick Morritt of the Norwich Borders on 2009-02-09 10:34:38

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  The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

  Tom Wolfe also wrote The Bonfire of the vanities which is perhaps the better known of his works. However, this semi-biographical story is the one I prefer, in all its' day-glo madness. It is the adventures of the Merry Pranksters during the hippy years, their attempts to break out of the straight-laced world of the States at the time through drugs, "happenings", art and music. Written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style which not everyone will find easy it is based around Ken Kesey who wrote One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Basically this is a crazy, dazzling book which is best enjoyed by the young!

  Review by Lizz Page on 14:04, 04 Apr 2008

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  Red, White and Kool

  This is a marvelously colourful story which, in its idiosyncratic style, really brings the reader into the same world as the Merry Pranksters themselves. Although the plot may seem ficticious and far fetched, this is a true first-hand account of the (mis)adventures of a group of people trying to break the mould of uptight 60's America.

  In some ways it can be seen as a much more lively and fun study on the effects of drugs than that of Aldous Huxley's 'Doors of Perception' and is a must for anyone interested in the popular culture of the time.

  Review by Ross John Aspden on 13:10, 03 Jul 2009

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