Review: Arcadia by Lauren Groff

Arcadia by Lauren Groff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I completely enjoyed this book without ever really loving it. Set in a late-'60s/early-'70s commune in upstate New York, the novel follows Bit Stone, whose birth coincides with the founding of the commune; the story spans the course of many decades until Bit's late middle age in the somewhat near future. The unique subject matter and the real-feeling characters are top-notch. I also loved the vast swath of time Groff covers, showing the vast range of people and emotion from the inception of the commune through its life and (spoiler alert?) eventual dispersal (I can't imagine that's a spoiler in a realistic novel about a hippie commune, but I'll play it safe). I loved the thematic arguments throughout about how and why we humans live together, and might live together more peacefully, more happily, more sustainably. Or not, as the case may be.

Just two complaints that kept me from really loving this book:
1) the writing was slightly too stylized for me to love. It was just trying too hard to be super-delicate, gossamer, elegant, natural. Sometimes it succeeded and worked to lovely effect, sometimes it was just affected. Stylized writing is tough to pull off under the best of circumstances, and I can't imagine how especially tough it would be to pull off for 300 pages. That I enjoyed the writing at all is testament to great skill, but I can't pretend that it didn't aggravate me at intervals.

2) The final sections of the book reminded me a ton of the later portions of Jennifer Egan's "A Visit From the Goon Squad." As in that book, Groff takes us into the realistic semi-near future, a daring act which paid off hugely in "Goon Squad" but here feels (again) like it's just trying slightly too hard. The contrasts Groff intends to underscore in the "near-future" ending of the book have already been made, and more subtly, earlier in the text. It doesn't help that the incidents of the final section of the book all feel like faits accomplis, and there is no mystery, tension, or wonder to keep the pages turning. While it's not a "plotty" book, enough happens and the character arcs are so compelling that the pages keep turning...up until the final section. The emotional climax of the book comes sooner, I think, than Groff intended.

Although if I'm being honest with myself, I am probably looking for more nits to pick than I would otherwise, since this book really resonated on uncomfortable levels for me, especially as a semi-recent father; in an interview at the end of the book, Groff herself talks about how the novel grew out of her conflicted feelings of conceiving and delivering a child into a troubled world. I certainly understand her point of view and connect with those uncertain feelings, maybe too much for my liking.

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