Arcadia (original 2012; edition 2012)

The author certainly portrays all aspects of Arcadia, both the good and bad; the joy of living there comes across just as well as the hard work that was expected of everyone (well, almost everyone). The story focuses on the Stone family in particular - the stalwart steady wheel-chair bound Abe, his seasonally-affected depressive wife Hannah and their son Bit, who desperately wants the activity and attention of his mother.

As an adolescent, Bit sees Arcadia starting to fall apart for many reasons, and he fears/dreads leaving Arcadia and the only way of life and the only extended family he's ever known. He sees life clearly through the lens of his camera and becomes a professor of photography in NYC. He reunites with his childhood love Helle, who has literally drifted through drugs, men, and life. Together they have a daughter Grete, who is cherished by Bit, perhaps even more when Helle disappears from his life.

When Hannah (diagnosed with ALS) and Abe can no longer care for each other, they decide to die together; Abe dies, Hannah lives. Bit and Grete are forced to leave the city to care for Hannah.

The author transports us into the year 2018 for the last part of the story, when there is a world-wide pandemic of SARI - a respiratory infection that kills hundreds of thousands, especially in large cities.

This novel takes us through the cycles of utopia to dystopia, of immaturity to maturity, of life to death. The language is eloquent, the verbal visuals stunning. I only wish the first third had moved faster and held my interest more.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. It is a beautiful story about a commune set up on idealistic principals that it doesn't always adhere to. The characters were well developed and interesting. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Arcadia and the message of living in the moment. I am very glad that I picked this one up from the library.k ( )

It started out great, but kind of fell apart in the second half. I just lost interest....and decided to abandon. ( )

Pure, I kept thinking as I read, this is pure. The prose rings like a bell and howls like a dog. The seasons of Bit struck me as close to home as anything has these past few months, and I lived in him entire for these few days. The book begins with his early childhood, an early 70s commune seen through five year old eyes. From that base, we meet Bit again as an adolescent, then as a middle-aged man, and finally as he will be a few years from now. The world Groff built herein is so very believable, from the parts in the past to the parts in the near future, and that's one of the strengths of her novel. Her whole, believable, entirely alive characters are another.

This isn't light reading, nor is it easy. This is a journey over time, over emotions, and over all the scary things one can conjure in a life. The reconciliation, (for one knows, almost from the first page that there must be some redemption somewhere), is breathtaking and sere and lovely.

There are pieces that feel wedged in, and I'm knocking it half a star for those uneven spots. I may bump it back up on a re-read, but then again, I don't know that I can bear to re-read it. 4.5 ( )

Wow! Now I know why everyone is raving about Groff's writing...every sentence molded perfectly to the next one. I am a fast reader but I kept slowing down to savor her images. I loved Bit - especially as time went on - and the strength of Hannah, Abe and Astrid. Bit helped me learn (again) the value of seeing deeply, of loving completely, of the need for community and nature.

The first third of the book was a little difficult to hold my attention, but as Bit matured, I enjoyed his story even more. ( )