Huerfano: A Memoir Of Life In The Counterculture

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating and Thoughtful Look Back
Review: For those of us especially who lived through the era, but may not have had been daring enough to try commune living, Huerfano is a fascinating evocation of a particular time and place. The author places her adventures,appropriately, in the broader context of the times where "the personal is political" was more than just a slogan. Filled with vibrant portraits of personalities and places, Huerfano is a beautifully written page turner. You really care about these people and what happens to them. It's the kind of book you're sorry to see end.

Rating:
Summary: "The Excitement of Reading Huerfano"
Review: From my perspective as a currently middle-aged member of the California Bar, the best aspects of Huerfano are the extremely vivid depictions of the early 1970's life experience, coupled with a very steady [but inconspicuous] editorial hand that keeps the narrative flowing. It flows both chronologically as far as the author's involvement in the back to the land experience, and substantively as far as calling up the most important issues like self-imposed material deprivation; the joys of natural surroundings; the ups and downs of cooperative living; bending the boundaries of family and friends.

The illustrations are enjoyable, but the quality of writing is what really distinguishes this book. The author is very clear and direct about identifying the sometimes awkward and unprecedented choices she faced, and writes in a manner that invites the reader to empathize with the choices. I really recommend this book for anyone who once had and/or still has a curiosity about stepping off the beaten track.

Rating:
Summary: A Memoir of a Memoir
Review: The war is grinding to a stand-off, the country is polarized, the caskets of young men are lining up in neat rows at Andrews Air Force Base, many of the young are apathetic. The year is 2005. Guess again, it's 1970 when two eastern establishment college kids gain post graduate grants to study the Hippys and to their surprise are soon building a house on a commune.
Libre `The Last Resort' where the members have eschewed connivance shopping, credit, insurance and central heating for a life of peace and `voluntary poverty' high in the mountains of southern Colorado.
Roberta Price has woven a true tale in excellent and lucid prose. The statement `if you remember the sixty's you weren't there' does not apply here. She remembers it well.
At the start I was not going to mention the fact that I was a member of that commune, however in the end I must, in order to put my stamp of approval on the authenticity of the book. She has a terrific memory of the love, the hate, the life, the death, the work, and the beauty of life in the counterculture.
In an age when college kids are more preoccupied with their YK-2 status than their F-4 (draft) status, the book is a refreshing peek into the past. If you are an old Hippy I defy you to keep the pages of this volume un-tear stained.