he watches a man die, he watches his mother slip into her winter depressions, he watches the community in its triumphs and failures.Īnd through his eyes, there is so much beauty. She kneels to his height and kisses him.īut bit is not unintelligent, he is just watching. Sweetie gives the note to Hannah, whose lips form an O.

When he hands it to Sweetie, she goes speechless. He wakes three times per night, desolate for his mother. the size of an itty-bitty butternut squash.īit is initially believed by many members of the community to be defective because of his size and because he doesn't speak for several years. When he is born, he is just a tiny little thing: she wrapped you around and around with a thick wool scarf and went to the grocer's and weighed you. This novel focuses on bit, a child born into a hippie commune, and checks in with him during four periods in his life. i have read all three of her books now, and while monsters of templeton is still far and away the winner in the 'books by lauren groff' award ceremonies, this one is very very good. fucking hippies.īut i should have known that lauren groff would write a spectacular book even if it was about fucking hippies. (Mar.I had reservations about this book because, well, look at that cover. The effective juxtaposition of past and future and Groff’s (Delicate Edible Birds) beautiful prose make this an unforgettable read. Split between utopia and its aftermath, the book’s second half tracks the ways in which Bit, now an adult (he’s 50 when this all ends, in 2018), has been shaped by Arcadia a career in photography was the perfect choice for a man who “watches life from a good distance.” Bit’s painful experiences as a husband, father, and son grow more harrowing as humanity becomes increasingly imperiled. The small, sensitive child whose purposeful lack of speech is sometimes mistaken for slowness finds comfort in Grimms’ fairy tales and is lost in the outside world once Arcadia’s increasingly entitled spiritual leader falls from grace and the community crumbles.

Bit’s vibrant mother retreats into herself each winter caring for the community literally breaks his father’s back. Despite their idealistic goals, the family’s attempts at sustainability bring hunger, cold, illness, and injury. Groff’s dark, lyrical examination of life on a commune follows Bit, aka Little Bit, aka Ridley Sorrel Stone, born in the late ’60s in a spot that will become Arcadia, a utopian community his parents help to form.

Arcadia groff