Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture [Paperback]

Moon Unit Zappa (Foreword), Chelsea Cain (Editor)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: SEAL PRESS (Oct 26 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 158005031X
ISBN-13: 978-1580050319
Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 14 x 1.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 272 g

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #883,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Some may consider the hippie counterculture a bust, but the dynamic young women whose personal essays appear in this collection illustrate that it did create a subculture of strong individuals. By turns angry, sentimental and wary, the daughters of this cultural revolution meditate on the impact of their parents' choices. Zappa sets the tone in her energetic but scattered prologue celebrating individual difference. Editor Cain captures the muddy emotional landscape experienced by many girls who "live between two worlds"; her jaded yet clever report on today's Rainbow Gatherings, where folks drink camp coffee but crave cappuccino, is a highlight. In a coarse polemic, Elizabeth Sh? rages against the free love that left her without boundaries: free to do anything "[b]ut not free to say no." Cecily Schmidt gently tries to find her place in the counterculture as she poetically honors her quiet parents, who instilled in her a love of the land and a powerful sense of self. Veggie diets, too much pot and persistent poverty drove many hippies back into the mainstream, although some of their children didn't accompany them. As a group, these voices, which join those of other notable hippie kids, such as Jedidiah Purdy and Lisa Michaels (whose Split: A Counterculture Childhood is excerpted in this volume), are a powerful sign that a change may still be coming. This mixed bag is a worthwhile document from a great, if troubled, experiment. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

Children who endured tofu, communes, nudism, and political protests growing up with hippie parents recall their unusual childhoods in this unique collection of alternative voices. Original. Tour.

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Testimonies about a Sweet, but Brief, Dream, May 6 2002

Marcy A. Sheiner "Marcy S" (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture (Paperback)

As a mom who raised two children partially within hippie culture, I am intensely curious about how other kids raised similarly turned out. Wild Child didn't completely sate my curiosity, but it whetted my appetite to go out and read more books on this topic (they're coming fast and furious now).

One funny thing about "being a hippie" is that many of us feel like we weren't *real* enough, compared to, say Wavy Gravy or the Deadheads. Sure, my kids went to alternative schools, witnessed more sex than shrinks would advise, and loved riding around in our beige VW bus, standing on the seats so they could wave to passers-by from the open sunroof. But I only lived communally for three years; I held down a respectable office job; and at one point I even cut my hair.

Wild Child quelled my feelings of being a fraud by showing that there were a lot of different ways to be a hippie. One girl's family traveled back and forth cross-country in a mail truck bought at auction; another spent time working the sugar fields of Belize. About the only thing they all had in common was being embarrassed to reveal the contents of their lunchboxes to classmates-and having a lot of strange people wandering around their homes, whether they lived in a house, bus or teepee.

For me the most powerful piece was the editor's: "Welcome Home," in which she describes attending a latter-day Rainbow Gathering. Having already lived the real thing, the gathering's painstaking efforts to replicate hippie life cannot possibly impress or move her.

Only one contributor is angry about her childhood: she is furious about the omnipresent sexuality she was exposed to almost from infancy. For the most part, though, the contributors enjoyed their childhood and still love and appreciate their parents and what they were trying to do. Interestingly, none of them have chosen to adopt the hippie lifestyle--though many have retained its core values of peace, love, and self-sufficiency.

I recommend Wild Child to anyone with a vested interest in hippiedom-for instance, parents seeking validation for their child-rearing methods. It's also a fine antidote to hippie-bashing, considered sophisticated now even by those who once embraced the lifestyle. The truth is, it was a brilliant and optimistic moment in history. If it didn't transform the world completely, well, it did affect future generations-as Wild Child eloquently testifies.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, Oct 9 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture (Paperback)

This book was excellent, on the topic of family, friends and lovers. I loved it and had a hard time sleeping!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, Oct 9 2001

Lisa Truman (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews