The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Probably one of the best books I have ever read.

Where did the saying "You're either on the bus or you're off the bus" come from ? Who were the real people in Kerouac's On The Road ? How did The Grateful Dead create such awesome sounds ? What did the Pranksters think about their meeting with The Hell's Angels ? (Hunter Thompson reported it in his book of the same name - this gives the other side of the same story) How did The Beatles come up with the idea for their Magical Mystery Tour ? The answer to these and many more questions about the acid culture of the 60s (when it was a lot safer to pop a tab) can be found in this great read. Highly recommended for anyone who was around at the time and can't remember much about it - also recommended for those who can remember and want a great trip down memory lane.

I READ THIS AFTER HEARING WOLF USED SOME OF HUNTER THOMPSON TAPES HE RECORDED WHILST RESEARCHING FOR HELLS ANGELS BUT THE GUY DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE A SENCE OF HUMOUR BUT DO ENJOY READING ABOUT THE SIXTIES WHEN MIND EXPANTION WAS TO ACHIVED AND B4 WE GOT LAZY AND JUST WANTED TO GET S*** FACED HAVING BEEN BORN IN MANCHESTER IN 68 YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM THE MAIN ONE BEING THE YEAR THE SECOND BEING MANCHESTER HAD TWO 30'S THEN GOT IN BED WITH THATCHER BEING LED TO BELIEVE WHAT A NICE OLD LADY LITTLE DID WE KNOW THAT UNDER THE COVERS SHE HAD ON A BIG STRAP ON TIPPED WITH HUGE SPIKES BUT BACK TO THE SIXTIES THE BOOKS ABOUT KEN KESEY AND THE MERRY PRANKSTERS THE GUY WHO WROTE "ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST." WHICH WAS LATER A PLAY THEN A MOVIE NEVER LIKED THE FILM BUT I DO LOVE THE BOOK IT GIVES THE CHARACTERS HUMANITY BUT THE TOM WOLF DOES A PRETTY FAITH JOB OF REPORTING EVENTS AS THEY HAPPEN AND SOME OF THE MOODS SURROUNDING THESE PEOPLE BUT HE DOESN'T SEEM TO INJECT ANY HUMOUR IT'S INFORMATIVE BUT IN MY OPPINION A LITTLE FLAT ABIT LIKE A BBC TWO DOCUMENTARY BUT IF DID ONE BASED ON THIS BOOK I'D WATCH IT SO IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD

An incredible insight into a pivotal time. Wolfe draws upon the experiences of many Merry Pranksters to give a range of personal perspectives, capturing the frenetic vibe of the developing psychedelic movement with a unique writing style. For some, this style may prove difficult to penetrate, while others will find it absorbing. (You're either on the bus or off the bus!) Personally, it carried me along with the flow on a most enjoyable ride...

It is with great appropriatenessnessness that Hunter Thompson, in an S-less state, is mentioned, as the author of "Hell's Angels", as this is the other half of the equation whose solution is "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas". A psychedelic splurge of a book, covering the acid-soaked start of the California Counterculture, of a type that the Summer of Love represented an end of, not a beginning. As the half-century approaches, read it and enjoy as the past turns into history - and no, they're not the same thing.

This has to be one the best books I have read, a great piece with lots of laughs along the way. Tom Wolfe at his finest, I couldn’t put this book down

Great story that completely submerses the reader into the crazy world they end up in, it really is one of those books that you cannot put down, easy read and very engaging from the beginning to end. Cannot recommend more for those who are interested in psychedelia.

Somebody wrote after a 1-star review "well I was there". So was I. As a young Englishman, having just finished University I decided to spend my "last summer of freedom" (before taking up my first 9-5 job) exploring that great mysterious, amazing country called America. It was 1966 and I inevitably ended up on the West Coast and took the wonder drug, with some lovely friends who'd showed up from North Carolina. Does Wolfe accurately chronicle that zeitgiest, that era? Not really. He writes interminable pages of detail about the goings on in and around the cult of the Merry Pranksters, for whom Ken Kesey was the leader. Now I have a considerable respect for Kesey as, along with Timothy Leary, he was a leading figure in the LSD revolution, but Wolfe's work I found first of all extremely parochial - he describes one small corner of the acid scene at that time, and not a typical one - in way that is repetitive and BORING. Afler ploughing through a few chapters of this, I gave up looking for substance, and started skimming the rest of the book to see if things changed. It appeared they didn't so, having paid about ten quid for this "famous classic" I decided that my time is too precious to wade through pages of tedious detail, and tossed it in the recycle bin. If you want a read about that era that is well written, doesn't SMOTHER you with detail, and makes you LAUGH as well, you should read the classic" Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thmpson, who was also "there", but unlike Wolfe speaks from INSIDE the drug experience, and to an excess which none of us "chemical pioneers" would have dared to venture into.