Flower Children

I grew up in the 60's and 70's in a traditional setting, only admiring hippies from a younger perspective. It was very interesting for me to read this book about hippie children and how their lives were shaped. As fun as it was to read, as a parent it was sometimes painful to read about the kids' lack of boundaries. Ideally, it seems great and there are some advantages, but overall the kids seem to suffer for it. The author tells her life story very well, but she didn't give much of a clue about how she feels about her upbringing now that she's an adult. I'd definitely recommend reading this book because it gives you a rare look at a lifestyle that's uncommon. The book is easy to read and doesn't take long to finish. You can decide for yourself how you feel about the Flower Children.

If you know what you're getting, this is a wonderful book. A novella expanded from a prize-winning short story, this sparse, evocative book transports you, not to a blow-by-blow, realistic account of such a childhood, but to a mood. Told from the viewpoint of a wise child, like Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend" or John Irving's "Until I Find You," you root for the kids against the irresponsible, unjust adults. Not recommended for education reformers or social scientists who just want data, facts, or objective reporting. The tone is mostly that of longing for a world-gone-by, not only of childhood, but for a special one, one perhaps impossible to re-create for any other children.

This is great book - I read it for my book club and I heartily recommend it. Swann's description of her unorthodox upbringing is riveting and her writing is beautiful and evocative. Best book I've read this summer!

This novel is a compelling, fast-paced read - I read it in single evening. The narrator, a maturing teen girl, tells the story of her growing up "free to do anything" through a series of vignettes about her "hippie"/ eccentric parents, visits to her parents' families, the fascinating bad boys up the road and neighborhood tragedy (in a keen portrait of teen life and angst), and her return to this world many years later. I highly recommend it for the sparse evocative prose, the narrative drive, the touching character development, and the acutely vivid imagery

I'm kind of surprised by the other comments here. Not only is this book written with the thoughtful, spare, articulate skill of a poet, it also kicks up a plume of dust that engulfs and transports us into the interior worlds of memory. It doesn't seem to me that the book was ever intended to be a blow-by-blow narrative of a group of kids growing up. The writing has a much more ambiguous quality, and moves easily through different perspectives and voices. Swann's writing is big on imagery. This is certainly one of her strong points. Whether it's a girlfriend's blonde hair, the texture of mud dried on skin, or the first stirring of sexual arousal, she really knows how to write the image sensually. She's also adept at capturing the prismatic universe of interior emotions. Especially those of the children growing up in a world that is alienating and borderless. I especially love the sequence where the mother's new boyfriend takes them around cutting down trees to block off roads that hunters are using with no thought that this will also block the kids' school bus route in the morning. Flower Children reminded me a lot of my childhood. Not that my parents were hippies; but I think that a lot of the free-ideas of the 70's trickled into the mainstream and led to a lot of suspect child rearing, all in the name of free love, which unfortunately translated into adult selfishness. That's my take, anyway.