Writing style
Experimental · Journalistic · Stream of consciousness · Witty
Apple BooksThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Biography and memoir
- First published
- 1968
- Print length
- 416 pagesPicador, 2008
Description
Tom Wolfe follows novelist Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they cross the United States in Furthur, their brightly painted school bus, turning travel into a mobile experiment in psychedelic consciousness. Fueled by LSD and a desire to dissolve the boundaries of individual identity, the group stages Acid Tests that combine drug-laced drinks, live music, lights, and overwhelming noise. Their orbit expands to include the Hells Angels, the Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg, while Kesey’s marijuana arrest and flight to Mexico bring growing legal pressure. Written in the exuberant, experimental style of New Journalism, the book captures both the communal ambitions and destabilizing excesses of an emerging counterculture.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Brisk
Tone
Atmospheric · Irreverent · Playful · Unsettling
Structure
Chronological nonfiction · Episodic
Focus
Atmosphere · Character · Voice
Emotional intensity
3 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
More by Tom Wolfe
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Picador
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780312427597
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