{"id":20802,"date":"2013-04-27T12:47:53","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=20802"},"modified":"2014-05-09T00:47:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T04:47:39","slug":"arcadia-by-lauren-groff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/arcadia-by-lauren-groff\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcadia by Lauren Groff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Arcadia.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-26572\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Arcadia.jpg\" alt=\"Arcadia RD 1 cleanb\" width=\"915\" height=\"1387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Arcadia.jpg 915w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Arcadia-527x800.jpg 527w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2013\/04\/Arcadia-800x1212.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 915px) 100vw, 915px\" \/><\/a>Although I haven&#8217;t read any actual reviews, I know from seeing this title included in so many\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurengroff.com\/lists-of-lists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Best-of-2012 lists<\/a>\u00a0that the lauded reactions have reflected both quantity <em>and<\/em> quality. Leave it to me to take a somewhat contrary position: while I went through the whole gamut of emotions with\u00a0<em>Arcadia\u00a0<\/em>(narrator Andrew Garman begins with just enough wide-eyed youthful innocence that gently morphs into a middle-aged resignation), by title&#8217;s end, I still preferred\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurengroff.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Lauren Groff<\/a>&#8216;s 2009 collection,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/2013\/03\/02\/delicate-edible-birds-and-other-stories-by-lauren-groff\/\">Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>and I could certainly name other 2012 titles that I would give more substantial kudos.<\/p>\n<p><em>Arcadia\u00a0<\/em>follows some four decades in the life of\u00a0Bit Stone, named so because he &#8220;is tiny, a mote of a boy.&#8221; His claim to local fame is that he&#8217;s the first child born on the 1960s commune in upstate New York\u00a0called Arcadia \u2013 initially known as Ersatz Arcadia before the proper Arcadia House is built. The book&#8217;s first half follows Bit&#8217;s boyhood as he introspectively observes the ecstatic hope of founding a utopian society, and its inevitable demise through too much drugs and sex, and not enough objective leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward suddenly to Bit as a father, cuddling his young daughter Grete who is not yet sleepy. Absent is Bit&#8217;s wife, she who was Helle \u2013\u00a0wild, troubled, and lost again\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the daughter of Arcadia&#8217;s wayward leader. On the wall across from their daughter&#8217;s bed is a mural, as yet unfinished, that captures Bit&#8217;s memories of an Arcadia that no longer exists, a time still heady with beauty and potential. All grown up and out in the &#8216;real world,&#8217; Bit is a professor of photography; he tries to keep his splintered family together, be both parents to his only child, keep up with a few scattered friends, and teach his students. When a tragic emergency calls him back to Arcadia where his father went gone off-the-grid years ago, Bit is led back to his past &#8230; and finally begins to envision a future.<\/p>\n<p>While the whole book is gorgeously written\u00a0\u2013 Groff conjures intimate details with such evocative precision as to place you right there on every page\u00a0\u2013 the two halves read like opposites: the first half is predictably foreseen, the second half unexpectedly fresh. That said, to fully appreciate (sigh and sniffle over) the latter, you&#8217;ll need to patiently invest 150 pages in the former. For me,\u00a0no regrets; curiosity would not have let this book go unread.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I haven&#8217;t read any actual reviews, I know from seeing this title included in so many\u00a0Best-of-2012 lists\u00a0that the lauded reactions have reflected both quantity and quality. Leave it to me to take a somewhat contrary position: while I went through the whole gamut of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,60],"tags":[464,465,6608,10,265,13,39],"class_list":["post-20802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-nonethnic-specific","tag-andrew-garman","tag-arcadia","tag-bookdragon","tag-family","tag-lauren-groff","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arcadia by Lauren Groff - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/arcadia-by-lauren-groff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arcadia by Lauren Groff - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although I haven&#8217;t read any actual reviews, I know from seeing this title included in so many\u00a0Best-of-2012 lists\u00a0that the lauded reactions have reflected both quantity and quality. 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