I just finished reading Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle. It's about a struggling Californian hippie commune in 1970 that decides to uproot and move up to the remote wilds of Northern Alaska and the folks already living there who have a variety of reactions to the newcomers. The novel starts great with two excellent settings and a host of interesting characters. Boyle's lyrical writing is read-aloud delightful and chock full of his signature whimsical similes. The only problem is that both he and the reader get so used to the two stories being separate that when they finally collide in their inevitable climax, Boyle seems to lose some of his interest. The final act, which was likely the genesis of the novel, seems a bit flat and uneventful compared to the scenarios that the reader and the characters themselves were fearing. Definitely some great writing though and well worth the time it takes to read.
