Arcadia

By: Lauren Groff

Narrated by: Andrew Garman

Lauren Groff’s acclaimed debut novel The Monsters of Templeton was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Arcadia opens in the late 1960s with a group of young idealists forming a commune in western New York State. Into this group is born Bit, who grows into a quiet, distant man. Over the course of 50 years, Bit witnesses the utopia crumble and the world change in unimaginable ways.

©2012 Lauren Groff (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Richly peopled and ambitious… is one of the most moving and satisfying novels I’ve read in a long time.” (Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author)

Beautifully written

Beautiful prose. Interesting plot and characters. Too depressing to be called bittersweet, though.

Story petered out

Started out wonderfully, but didn't hold up for me, and ended very abruptly... Maybe her other book Will be better

not a fan

I have read her other two books and love them both... But this one left something to be desired. I don't know if it was the subject or the style of writing but I did not care for it and it was a struggle to get through. there were a few gems within the story but overall I thought it was fairly depressing

Didn't dive it as I did with Monsters of Templeton

Any additional comments?

I just couldn't get into this book. I read almost half of it and kept wishing that I was at the end. I loved her other book--The Monsters of Templeton--but the subject of the book, a hippy commune, just didn't keep me interested. And the very small boy who is the main character kept making me think of Owen Meany. So I set this book aside.

Beautiful heart wrenching story

My favorite of all of Lauren Groffs novels, Arcadia follows one man named Bit from childhood in a hippie commune through life. Poignant, beautifully written, we see the world through Bit's eyes.