A review by shelfimprovement
Arcadia, by Lauren Groff

3.0

Arcadia is something of a coming-of-age story. It follows Bit, a young boy who grows up on a failing hippie commune in the 1970s. The story begins when Bit is five and the commune is all he's ever known. Though the narration is third-person, it is vaguely Bit's point of view so we see the struggles of the commune from a child's perspective. Bit doesn't quite understand what's going on as the adults hope for a community house that never seems to come to fruition, illness and poverty lead to a dwindling population, and depression takes over his mother, who is torn between wanting to get the hell out and wanting to stay loyal.

I couldn't quite get into this one. It moved too slowly, and was told in jarring - almost disconnected - snapshots of life on the commune. There were times where I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, and I'm not sure if it's because the POV was of a five year old boy or because it was telling of a time and a place that I couldn't even begin to relate to.

Having read the positive reviews of this book, I can certainly understand why other people enjoyed it. I don't think this was a bad book by any means -- it just wasn't for me.