The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

All Available Formats + Editions

$0.99

——

Paperback

$0.99

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (REPRINT) Pub. Date: 10/28/1999 Publisher: Bantam Books

$1.99

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Mass Market Paperback) Pub. Date: 8/1/1996 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

$4.86

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Mass Market Paperback) Pub. Date: 12/1/1982 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

$188.93

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Pub. Date: 10/1/1987 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

$0.99

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Mass Market Paperback) Pub. Date: 5/21/1976 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
$54.95

——

Hardcover

$54.95

——

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (First Edition) Pub. Date: 11/1/1987 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Want to read this on your NOOK? Request as NOOK Book from the publisher

Thank you for requesting this book as a NOOK book from the publisher.

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

"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.

Editorial Reviews

Eliot Fremont-Smith

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is not simply the best book on the hippies, it is the book...the pushing, ballooning heart of the matter...Vibrating dazzle!
--The New York Times

Newsweek

Among journalists, Wolfe is a geniune poet; what makes him so good is his ability to get inside, to not merely describe (although he is a superb reporter), but to get under the skin of a phenomenon and transmit its metabolic rhythm.

More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews

Studs Terkel

Some consider Mailer our greatest journalist; my candidate is Wolfe.
--BookWeek

Village Voice

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is an amazing book...A book that definitely gives Wolfe the edge on the non-fiction novel.

Washington Post

A Day-Glo book; illuminating, merry, surreal!

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780553380644
Publisher: Bantam Books
Publication date: 10/28/1999
Edition description: REPRINT
Pages: 416
Product dimensions: 5.20 (w) x 8.10 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe is the author of a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. He lives in New York City.

Biography

Tom Wolfe was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He was educated at Washington and Lee (B.A., 1951) and Yale (Ph.D., American Studies, 1957) Universities. In December 1956, he took a job as a reporter on the Springfield (Massachusetts) Union. This was the beginning of a ten-year newspaper career, most of it as a general assignment reporter. For six months in 1960 he served as The Washington Post's Latin American correspondent and won the Washington Newspaper Guild's foreign news prize for his coverage of Cuba.

In 1962 he became a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and, in addition, one of the two staff writers (Jimmy Breslin was the other) of New York magazine, which began as the Herald Tribune's Sunday supplement. While still a daily reporter for the Herald Tribune, he completed his first book, a collection of articles about the flamboyant Sixties written for New York and Esquire and published in 1965 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux as The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. The book became a bestseller and established Wolfe as a leading figure in the literary experiments in nonfiction that became known as the New Journalism.

In 1968 he published two bestsellers on the same day: The Pump House Gang, made up of more articles about life in the Sixties, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a nonfiction story of the hippie era. In 1970 he published Radical Chick & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, a highly controversial book about racial friction in the United States. The first section was a detailed account of a party Leonard Bernstein gave for the Black Panthers in his Park Avenue duplex, and the second portrayed the inner workings of the government's poverty program.

Even more controversial was Wolfe's 1975 book on the American art world, The Painted Word. The art world reacted furiously, partly because Wolfe kept referring to it as the "art village," depicting it as a network of no more than three thousand people, of whom about three hundred lived outside the New York metropolitan area. In 1976 he published another collection, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine, which included his well-known essay "The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening."

In 1979 Wolfe completed a book he had been at work on for more than six years, an account of the rocket airplane experiments of the post-World War II era and the early space program focusing upon the psychology of the rocket pilots and the astronauts and the competition between them. The Right Stuff became a bestseller and won the American Book Award for nonfiction, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Harold Vursell Award for prose style, and the Columbia Journalism Award.

"The right stuff," "radical chic," and "the Me Decade" (sometimes altered to "the Me Generation") all became popular phrases, but Wolfe seems proudest of "good ol' boy," which he had introduced to the written language in a 1964 article in Esquire about Junior Johnson, the North Carolina stock car-racing driver, which was called "The Last American Hero."

Wolfe had been illustrating his own work in newspapers and magazines since the 1950s, and in 1977 began doing a monthly illustrated feature for Harper's magazine called "In Our Time". The book, In Our Time, published in 1980, featured these drawings and many others. In 1981 he wrote a companion to The Painted Word entitled From Bauhaus to Our House, about the world of American architecture.

In 1984 and 1985 Wolfe wrote his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, in serial form against a deadline of every two weeks for Rolling Stone magazine. It came out in book form in 1987. A story of the money-feverish 1980s in New York, The Bonfire of the Vanities was number one of the New York Times bestseller list for two months and remained on the list for more than a year, selling over 800,000 copies in hardcover. It also became the number-one bestselling paperback, with sales above two million.

In 1989 Wolfe outraged the literacy community with an essay in Harper's magazine called "Stalking the Billion-footed Beast." In it he argued that the only hope for the future of the American novel was a Zola-esque naturalism in which the novelist becomes the reporter -- as he had done in writing The Bonfire of the Vanities, which was recognized as the essential novel of America in the 1980s.

In 1996, Wolfe wrote the novella Ambush at Fort Bragg as a two-part series for Rolling Stone. In 1997 it was published as a book in France and Spain and as an audiotape in the United States. An account of a network television magazine show's attempt to trap three soldiers at Fort Bragg into confessing to the murder of one of their comrades, it grew out of what had been intended as one theme in a novel Wolfe was working on at that time. The novel, A Man in Full, was published in November of 1998. The book's protagonists are a sixty-year old Atlanta real estate developer whose empire has begun a grim slide toward bankruptcy and a twenty-three-year-old manual laborer who works in the freezer unit of a wholesale food warehouse in Alameda County, California, owned by the developer. Before the story ends, both have had to face the question of what is it that makes a man "a man in full" now, at the beginning of a new century and a new millennium.

A Man in Full headed the New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks and has sold nearly 1.4 million copies in hardcover. The book's tremendous commercial success, its enthusiastic welcome by reviewers, and Wolfe's appearance on the cover of Time magazine in his trademark white suit plus a white homburg and white kid gloves -- along with his claim that his sort of detailed realism was the future of the American novel, if it was going to have one -- provoked a furious reaction among other American novelists, notably John Updike, Norman Mailer, and John Irving.

Wolfe's latest novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, explores the unique antics of college life. He lives in New York City with his wife, Sheila; his daughter, Alexandra; and his son, Tommy.

Author biography courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

1. Also Known As:
  
  Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (full name)
2. Hometown:
  
  New York, New York
1. Date of Birth:
  
  March 2, 1931
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Richmond, Virginia
1. Education:
  
  B.A. (cum laude), Washington and Lee University, 1951; Ph.D. in American Studies, Yale University, 1957
2. Website:
  
  http://www.tomwolfe.com

Read an Excerpt

Black Shiny FBI Shoes

That's good thinking there, Cool Breeze. Cool Breeze is a kid with three or four days' beard sitting next to me on the stamped metal bottom of the open back part of a pickup truck. Bouncing along. Dipping and rising and rolling on these rotten springs like a boat. Out the back of the truck the city of San Francisco is bouncing down the hill, all those endless staggers of bay windows, slums with a view, bouncing and streaming down the hill. One after another, electric signs with neon martini glasses lit up on them, the San Francisco symbol of "bar"--thousands of neon-magenta martini glasses bouncing and streaming down the hill, and beneath them hundreds, thousands of people wheeling around to look at this freaking crazed truck we're in, their white faces erupting from their lapels like marshmallows--streaming and bouncing down the hill--and God knows they've got plenty to look at.

That's why it strikes me as funny when Cool Breeze says very seriously over the whole roar of the thing, "I don't know--when Kesey gets out I don't know if I can come around the Warehouse."

"Why not?"

"Well, like the cops are going to be coming around like all feisty, and I'm on probation, so I don't know."

Well, that's good thinking there, Cool Breeze. Don't rouse the bastids. Lie low--like right now. Right now Cool Breeze is so terrified of the law he is sitting up in plain view of thousands of already startled citizens wearing some kind of Seven Dwarfs Black Forest gnome's hat covered in feathers and fluorescent colors. Kneeling in the truck, facing us, also in plain view, is a half-Ottawa Indian girl named LoisJennings, with her head thrown back and a radiant look on her face. Also a blazing silver disk in the middle of her forehead alternately exploding with light when the sun hits it or sending off rainbows from the defraction lines in it. And, oh yeah, there's a long-barreled Colt .45 revolver in her hand, only nobody on the street can tell it's a cap pistol as she pegs away, kheeew, kheeew, at the erupting marshmallow faces like Debra Paget in . . . in . . .

--Kesey's coming out of jail!

Two more things they are looking at out there are a sign on the rear bumper reading "Custer Died for Your Sins" and, at the wheel, Lois's enamorado Stewart Brand, a thin blond guy with a blazing disk on his forehead too, and a whole necktie made of Indian beads. No shirt, however, just an Indian bead necktie on bare skin and a white butcher's coat with medals from the King of Sweden on it.

Here comes a beautiful one, attach? case and all, the day-is-done resentful look and the ...shoes--how they shine!--and what the hell are these beatnik ninnies--and Lois plugs him in the old marshmallow and he goes streaming and bouncing down the hill . . .

And the truck heaves and billows, blazing silver red and Day-Glo, and I doubt seriously, Cool Breeze, that there is a single cop in all of San Francisco today who does not know that this crazed vehicle is a guerrilla patrol from the dread LSD.

The cops now know the whole scene, even the costumes, the jesuschrist strung-out hair, Indian beads, Indian headbands, donkey beads, temple bells, amulets, mandalas, god's-eyes, fluorescent vests, unicorn horns, Errol Flynn dueling shirts--but they still don't know about the shoes. The heads have a thing about shoes. The worst are shiny black shoes with shoelaces in them. The hierarchy ascends from there, although practically all lowcut shoes are unhip, from there on up to the boots the heads like, light, fanciful boots, English boots of the mod variety, if that is all they can get, but better something like hand-tooled Mexican boots with Caliente Dude Triple A toes on them. So see the FBI--black--shiny--laced up--FBI shoes--when the FBI finally grabbed Kesey--

There is another girl in the back of the truck, a dark little girl with thick black hair, called Black Maria. She looks Mexican, but she says to me in straight soft Californian:

"When is your birthday?"

"March 2."

"Pisces," she says. And then: "I would never take you for a Pisces."

"Why?"

"You seem too ... solid for a Pisces."

But I know she means stolid. I am beginning to feel stolid. Back in New York City, Black Maria, I tell you, I am even known as something of a dude. But somehow a blue silk blazer and a big tie with clowns on it and ... a ...pair of shiny lowcut black shoes don't set them all to doing the Varsity Rag in the head world in San Francisco. Lois picks off the marshmallows one by one; Cool Breeze ascends into the innards of his gnome's hat; Black Maria, a Scorpio herself, rummages through the Zodiac; Stewart Brand winds it through the streets; paillettes explode--and this is nothing special, just the usual, the usual in the head world of San Francisco, just a little routine messing up the minds of the citizenry en route, nothing more than psyche food for beautiful people, while giving some guy from New York a lift to the Warehouse to wait for the Chief, Ken Kesey, who is getting out of jail.

About all I knew about Kesey at that point was that he was a highly regarded 31-year-old novelist and in a lot of trouble over drugs. He wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), which was made into a play in 1963, and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964). He was always included with Philip Roth and Joseph Heller and Bruce Jay Friedman and a couple of others as one of the young novelists who might go all the way. Then he was arrested twice for possession of marijuana, in April of 1965 and January of 1966, and fled to Mexico rather than risk a stiff sentence. It looked like as much as five years, as a second offender. One day I happened to get hold of some letters Kesey wrote from Mexico to his friend Larry McMurtry, who wrote Horseman, Pass By, from which the movie Hud was made. They were wild and ironic, written like a cross between William Burroughs and George Ade, telling of hideouts, disguises, paranoia, fleeing from cops, smoking joints and seeking satori in the Rat lands of Mexico. There was one passage written George Ade-fashion in the third person as a parody of what the straight world back there in the U.S.A. must think of him now:

"In short, this young, handsome, successful, happily-married-three-lovely-children father was a fear-crazed dope fiend in flight to avoid prosecution on three felonies and god knows how many misdemeanors and seeking at the same time to sculpt a new satori from an old surf--in even shorter, mad as a hatter.

"Once an athlete so valued he had been given the job of calling signals from the line and risen into contention for the nationwide amateur wrestling crown, now he didn't know if he could do a dozen pushups. Once possessor of a phenomenal bank account and money waving from every hand, now it was all his poor wife could do to scrape together eight dollars to send as getaway money to Mexico. But a few years previous he had been listed in Who's Who and asked to speak at such auspicious gatherings as the Wellesley Club in Dah-la and now they wouldn't even allow him to speak at a VDC [Vietnam Day Committee] gathering. What was it that had brought a man so high of promise to so low a state in so short a time? Well, the answer can be found in just one short word, my friends, in just one all-well-used syllable:

"Dope!

"And while it may be claimed by some of the addled advocates of these chemicals that our hero is known to have indulged in drugs before his literary success, we must point out that there was evidence of his literary prowess well before the advent of the so-called psychedelic into his life but no evidence at all of any of the lunatic thinking that we find thereafter!"

To which he added:

"(oh yea, the wind hums time ago--time ago-- the rafter drums and the walls see ...and there's a door to that bird in the sa-a-a-apling sky time ago by-- Oh yeah the surf giggles time ago time ago of under things killed when bad was banished and all the doors to the birds vanished time ago then.)"

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5

( 51 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(30)

4 Star

(12)

3 Star

(5)

2 Star

(2)

1 Star

(2)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

Anonymous

Posted October 20, 2002

Unique Intellect

Wow! this is most definately my favorite Tom Wolfe book, and probably my favorite book ever! the merry pranksters remind me of a greatful dead-esque typical 60's hippie group. even people born after the time of 'the hippies' (they're still everywhere in Berkeley!) can appreciate the descriptive and unique style of writing posessed by Tom Wolfe.This book gives intellectual qualities to a people thought to be the most unintelligent of their time. Trippy.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted November 19, 2001

Magical Mystery Tour What?

In EKAT, Tom Wolfe, with his superb, flowing dialogue, gives humanity to a group long since thought to have no minds at all. The Merry Pranksters, led by Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Sometimes A Great Notion), gave rise to a whole new generation of 60's culture, influenced by LSD, love and freedom. Wolfe, although not present for most of the events of the book, beautifully words the breakthroughs and heartbreaks that severely forward thinking can bring. Swirly and surreal, the Merry Pranksters are immortalized by Wolfe with a respect and understanding that few people can bring to the table. Knowing that the Grateful Dead, the Who and even the Beatles took ideas and examples from the Pranksters' lives, one would think by now the whole world would know them, but alas, there are only a sad few. If you want to know about the Magical Mystery Tour, The Magic Bus or Truckin'...read this first, it's a MUST!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted April 28, 2008

The truth and nothing but the truth.

I've been interested in the counter culture of the sixties since my early teens. I read this one about 3 years ago and finished it in 2 days. It's very funny and a real page turner. Kesey and Babbs were quintessential figures of their generation and this is a must read for any 60's lover.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted April 17, 2008

Intersting Book

If you want to know anything about the hippies in the middle 60's this would be the book for you to read. it did include alot of info on how they did the acid kool- aid test. I liked the fact that the author focused on what happen after they took the acid.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted July 2, 2007

A reviewer

this was helluv good. The synopsis cant even begin to describe everything this book was about. And wuite frankly i just dont think the majority of the ppl whove read this really get it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted October 10, 2006

The Begining of Psychedelic drugs

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test encompasses the idea behind the ¿hippy¿ movement as well as all that can be attributed to it, such as the political, economic and most importantly the social changes that occurred during this time of unrest. The era was defined by the Vietnam War, but was not only a time of protest but a time of drastic social ingenuity. Such ingenuity was mostly influenced by various groups of people that started the hippy movement such as the Merry Pranksters whose leader and modern philosopher Ken Kesey initiated such changes. The entire sixties era was molded how it was as a result of the exponential growth of the use of psychedelic drugs. Such groups as the Merry Pranksters and the group that followed Timothy Leary were the backbone of the psychedelic movement. The merry Pranksters were ultimately the prodigy of Ken Kesey¿s experimental use of such drugs as LSD to understand and treat mentally ill individuals. The main goal of the Merry Pranksters was generally to mislead various groups and individuals to an incredibly odd world through the use of LSD. The drug is widely praised in the book and is the cornerstone for which the Merry Pranksters base their charades upon. Most of the pranks the Prankster¿s pull are simply the result of giving LSD to individuals who did not know. This concept is the basis of which the Pranksters were created upon. But the major part in which the Prankster¿s outrageous behavior is exemplified is through the movie that the Pranksters created, that can still be seen to this day. The group¿s goal in the movie was to capture human emotion and behavior at its most basic and unadulterated state, through the use of LSD. Besides the descriptions of other groups that what were introduced in the book, Tom Wolfe mainly focuses on the Merry Pranksters. But those who are interested in the book would most likely want to read about those groups read works about Timothy Leary, Hunter S. Thompson, and various entries about the Hell¿s Angles, or essentially ¿hippy¿ journalism. The book is very insightful to the reader who wishes to learn about the sixties era and more commonly about ¿hippies¿. Since the stories are non fiction and are told through the words of the knowledgeable journalist Tom Wolfe, the messages and ideas that are expressed are explained relatively clear with virtually no bias. The only down side to the read is the book¿s inapt ability to have any suspense whatsoever besides the introduction of mysterious and unorthodox ideas and philosophies exhibited through the sixty¿s era¿s ¿youth¿.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted August 30, 2004

Interesting Subject, Ponderous Writing

I love Tom Wolfe, which is why I was incredibly disappointed in this book. A mish-mash of ¿stream of consciousness¿ writing, the book just wore me down. While it is a fascinating look at the completely irrational, drug-induced, childish, fun culture of the sixties, I found it in the end a tedious read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted October 7, 2004

Vibrant after all these years

In hindsight, this book doesn't possess the same initial revolutionary punch- but credit where credit's due, this is probably 'cuz Wolfe virtually founded this visceral, imagistic style (quite a feat, considering he was one of the few writers actually *abstaining* from drugs at the time), opening a door for hordes of scions to plagiarize and delude. The same thing happened to Hemingway. But the book remains intractably vibrant, if not the revelation it was when it first hit us.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted July 24, 2004

simply AMAZING

a very well researched and organized piece of literature. extremely accessable and interesting. provides a front row seat to the excesses and travelings of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. a remarkable book, highly HIGHLY recomended... amazing style of storytelling.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted August 13, 2004

~*~* Beatik Generation *~*~

If you're into the beatnik/hippie generation, then this is a great read. the plot is amazing! Ken Kesey gets a group of people and they ride around the country in a psychedelic 'day-glo' painted bus, complete with music, new people along the way, brushes with the law and of course 'electric kool-aid', which ya know is LSD/Acid. Tales of the Hell's Angels, The Grateful Dead, Kesey on the run, and how high they get. There are definately some known names thrown in the book, like Allen Ginsberg. This is a great book, but the only thing i don't like is how Tom Wolfe writes. It's too overly intellectually written for the plot. Overall, amazing story!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted April 13, 2004

The Start of Acid and the Hippies

As soon as I came across this book while searching for books about the betnik population, this book struck my eyes first. Not only was it a great and entertaining read, but also gave a lot of information about Ken Kesey and his revolution. I had no idea that Ken Kesey was such a prominant figure in the whole era of the hippies, but after reading this book I now see all that Kesey did to promote the betnik population. The book begins with Kesey leavnig jail, on account for arrests dealing with drug charges. I new Kesey as the authro of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, and the book describes his rise to fame from that book. It then goes on to tell of the early beginning of LSD, which was developed by Timothy Leary. Kesey starts a group, which gains many followers that gain the name The Merry Pranksters. They go on a crazy bus trip all across the United States, live aimlessly in La Honda, meet with the Hell's Angles, get arrested numerous times, and finally begin partying with the Warlocks, who are later to be known as the Greatful Dead. The book sis a time capsule through the sixties, from the time acid was first tested, until finally when Kesey escapes to Mexico. Not only does Tom wolfe vividly describe the adventure, but also along the way describes the scene of the whole American population and how the people of the United States were affected by they new wave of hippies and betnik's during the sixties.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted January 22, 2004

The electric kool-aid acid test: different from all other books

this book is an amazing look at 1960's counterculture!!! It truely takes you to the time and place of the crazy 1960's california drug culture from the safty of your own home. Students: great to write a term paper on.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted December 26, 2002

A life changing read

This is one of those rare books out there that can truly change the way you view life. Tom Wolfe's extraodinary literary talent is evident in his thought provoking look at the hippies of the 1960's. This book made Ken Kesey a hero in my mind. Everyone should read this book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted May 27, 2002

This Book is the Shit

Incredible. Thought-provoking. You have to read it to appreciate it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted February 20, 2001

Day Glo Brilliance

If you walk into a book store and hear a ticking dont be alarmed it is just the electric kool-aid acid test set to exsplode once opened. In a leuge of it's own, untouchable within the drug counter culture genre! Sheer beauty of words, of description, of prhases. It can be cracked on any page, and yet manage to marvel the reader.....enjoy this one with a tall glass of OJ
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted March 14, 2000

A facinating journey

I found the author to be not only inovative in his writing style but unique for this book. He wrote it as if he were one of the people that the book was about, as if they were old friends. The story is definitely captivating and historically accurate. I found that each page was completely different from the next and there were more twists and amazing events then I could've ever expected. This was one of the best books I've ever read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted March 15, 2000

Excellent book that really disects the 1960s counter culture revolution

this is an excellent book, i would recommend it to anyone that enjoys books about the 60s, or who is interested in the acid tests that took place in california in the sixties. The way that wolfe follows the merry pranksters from town to town on furthur is magically chronicled, overall i would rate this book a 6 on a scale of 1-5
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted September 1, 2010

No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous

Posted September 10, 2011

No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous

Posted January 10, 2010

No text was provided for this review.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Available on NOOK devices and apps

Overview

What People Are Saying

Terry Southern

All Available Formats + Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview

Related Subjects

Editorial Reviews

Eliot Fremont-Smith

Newsweek

Studs Terkel

Village Voice

Washington Post

Product Details

Meet the Author

Tom Wolfe

Biography

Read an Excerpt

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Your Rating:

Your Recommendations:

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

What to exclude from your review:

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

Reminder:

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Unique Intellect

Magical Mystery Tour What?

The truth and nothing but the truth.

Intersting Book

A reviewer

The Begining of Psychedelic drugs

Interesting Subject, Ponderous Writing

Vibrant after all these years

simply AMAZING

~*~* Beatik Generation *~*~

The Start of Acid and the Hippies

The electric kool-aid acid test: different from all other books

A life changing read

This Book is the Shit

Day Glo Brilliance

A facinating journey

Excellent book that really disects the 1960s counter culture revolution

~~ Beatik Generation ~~