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DROP
CITY [ISBN 0-670-03172-0]
© 2003 by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Dedication: "For the sisters: Kathy, Linda, Janice and Christine" Acknowledgments: "The author would like to thank Chuck Fadel, Jorma Kaukonen, Russell Timothy Miller, Alan Arkawy, and Jim Perry for their help and advice." Epigraph: "Think of our life in nature -- daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, --rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we? -- Henry David Thoreau, "Ktaadn" "Let me tell you about heartache
and the loss of god,
First published excerpt, "Marco Drops In", from L.A. Weekly, February 14-20, 2003.  Anft,
Michael. Only
Children (review). Wasington Post 27 February 2003.
Partington, Richie. Drop City (review). Richie's Picks 27 October 2002.
Seaman, Donna. Drop City (review). Booklist 1 December 2002. Stoop. Drop City (review). Bookmunch <http://www.bookmunch.co.uk/>
"...this new book that I'm writing, Old Night, begins on a commune and deal(s) with the concept of free love." Old Night is set 30 years in the past, during the hippie period. --from an interview with Thomas J. Brady, "EARTHLY DISASTER: A FICTION FOR 2025," published in the Philadephia Inquirer, 31 August 2000. "...Boyle spent two years after college hanging out with a druggy set. He's been thinking about that time lately, since his next novel is going to be set back in the 'hippie days,' questioning what it meant. 'The culture at the time seemed to encourage spontaneity. I thought it was cool at the time, but now I'm trying to answer the question, what is the value of hip? For a while it meant tearing down the values of the preceding generation, but what values did we create, really? I've been watching the World Series on TV, and from the advertisements it looks like we are right back in the Yuppie era. Unapologetic consumerism and the great American desire to gamble, which is of course satisfied by the stock market.' " --from an interview with Roger Gathman, Austin Chronicle, 10 November 2000. From tcboyle.com, News, December 14, 2001: "The biggest news is with the new novel. You astute messagistas and casual visitors might have noticed that in recent messages I have referred to this book only as "the new novel," rather than by title. That is because, after much deliberation, I have changed the title from its original appellation, Old Night. The sixth and final section of the book retains the title "Old Night," and this is important because of the quote from Thoreau's "Ktaadn" that leads off that section and speaks to the themes of the book: "This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night." I mention all this because the trade publications will soon announce the Viking Penguin (America) and Bloomsbury (UK) acquisitions of this book, and I didn't want everyone to think I'd written two new novels this year. Am I leaving anything out? Oh, yeah: the new title. The terrific, true and apposite title is (and please, you discerning and disputatious messagistas, do not argue relative merits of the titles without first having read the book): Drop City. The first section was titled "Drop City" in the original, and finally I felt that this title better encompassed the various threads of the book than Old Night. It's just a tad bit sexier too, and it refers to the hippie commune which forms the center of the novel. So that's it: when you see references to Drop City, you'll know."--TCB Return to Novels Page Sandye Utley, Cincinnati, Ohio Last Page Update: 24 February 2003 |