From the bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton comes a lyrical and gripping story of a great American dream.
In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding what would become a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House.
Arcadia follows this romantic, rollicking, and tragic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday and after.
Arcadia’s inhabitants include Handy, a musician and the group’s charismatic leader; Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah’s only child, the book’s protagonist, Bit, who is born soon after the commune is created.
While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. If he remains in love with the peaceful agrarian life in Arcadia and deeply attached to its residents—including Handy and Astrid’s lithe and deeply troubled daughter, Helle—how can Bit become his own man? How will he make his way through life and the world outside of Arcadia where he must eventually live?
With Arcadia, her first novel since her lauded debut, The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff establishes herself not only as one of the most gifted young fiction writers at work today but also as one of our most accomplished literary artists.
Joe says:
"As I devoured the final 150 pages of Arcadia, unable to put it down, unwilling to leave the fantastic & beautiful world that Lauren Groff created, a storm was coming in. On high winds and ever-darkening skies, it seemed tailor-made to the darkening world of Bit Stone, the main character in this amazing novel. Bit was raised in a utopian world, a commune in upstate New York, with his parents and their fellow utopians, eager for the hard work necessary to create an ideal world; a world without anger, or jealousy, or corporations, or greed or any of the other things that seem prevalent in our modern world. But cracks seeped slowly in to their world. Egos, overpopulation, starvation, the clash between the world Outside and the world of the Arcadians finally drove the utopians out into the world.
As Bit and his friends and family age in the world Outside, mostly New York City, Lauren brings the story back to Arcadia, as the world around become a nightmare of contagion and disease. As Bit's parents grow old and sick, Bit returns to Arcadia, long-abandoned but still idyllic and beautiful, where he finally achieves something of a breakthrough: the ability to slow down and really see the world around him.
I don't think I've read a novel quite like this before. Lauren Groff's writing is down-to-earth, immediate, and catchy. Once I was snared into the storyline, I didn't want to leave it. This is a poetic novel -- not because of fancy words or confusing plot-lines -- but because of the simplistic beauty Groff brings to the page. Her prose is spare: the words she chooses perfectly bring the world of the Arcadians alive. Within the novel, Bit and his daughter, Grete, play a game in which they name beautiful things they have seen, memories of perfect beauty to them. This book is full of beautiful things, touching characters, tales both great and small... whole lives are contained in these sweet pages.
Lauren Groff shows her readers the joy and melancholy of life through not only her writing, but through her characters. Arcadia takes place in the past, present and future, which somehow made the book all the more real, all the more immediate, to me. This is a book filled with a lingering, haunting beauty. It was a book whose energy felt to me to be affecting the weather outside my window as I read it. One of those rare books that is so much more than a story: but rather, a living, pulsing force."
In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding what would become a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House.
Arcadia follows this romantic, rollicking, and tragic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday and after.
Arcadia’s inhabitants include Handy, a musician and the group’s charismatic leader; Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah’s only child, the book’s protagonist, Bit, who is born soon after the commune is created.
While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. If he remains in love with the peaceful agrarian life in Arcadia and deeply attached to its residents—including Handy and Astrid’s lithe and deeply troubled daughter, Helle—how can Bit become his own man? How will he make his way through life and the world outside of Arcadia where he must eventually live?
With Arcadia, her first novel since her lauded debut, The Monsters of Templeton, Lauren Groff establishes herself not only as one of the most gifted young fiction writers at work today but also as one of our most accomplished literary artists.
"As I devoured the final 150 pages of Arcadia, unable to put it down, unwilling to leave the fantastic & beautiful world that Lauren Groff created, a storm was coming in. On high winds and ever-darkening skies, it seemed tailor-made to the darkening world of Bit Stone, the main character in this amazing novel. Bit was raised in a utopian world, a commune in upstate New York, with his parents and their fellow utopians, eager for the hard work necessary to create an ideal world; a world without anger, or jealousy, or corporations, or greed or any of the other things that seem prevalent in our modern world. But cracks seeped slowly in to their world. Egos, overpopulation, starvation, the clash between the world Outside and the world of the Arcadians finally drove the utopians out into the world.
As Bit and his friends and family age in the world Outside, mostly New York City, Lauren brings the story back to Arcadia, as the world around become a nightmare of contagion and disease. As Bit's parents grow old and sick, Bit returns to Arcadia, long-abandoned but still idyllic and beautiful, where he finally achieves something of a breakthrough: the ability to slow down and really see the world around him.
I don't think I've read a novel quite like this before. Lauren Groff's writing is down-to-earth, immediate, and catchy. Once I was snared into the storyline, I didn't want to leave it. This is a poetic novel -- not because of fancy words or confusing plot-lines -- but because of the simplistic beauty Groff brings to the page. Her prose is spare: the words she chooses perfectly bring the world of the Arcadians alive. Within the novel, Bit and his daughter, Grete, play a game in which they name beautiful things they have seen, memories of perfect beauty to them. This book is full of beautiful things, touching characters, tales both great and small... whole lives are contained in these sweet pages.
Lauren Groff shows her readers the joy and melancholy of life through not only her writing, but through her characters. Arcadia takes place in the past, present and future, which somehow made the book all the more real, all the more immediate, to me. This is a book filled with a lingering, haunting beauty. It was a book whose energy felt to me to be affecting the weather outside my window as I read it. One of those rare books that is so much more than a story: but rather, a living, pulsing force."
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