Review for The Electric Affinities by Wade Stevenson

This is my review for The Electric Affinities.  All opinions included are my own and were in no way influenced by anyone else.

This book is a beautifully written book and flows a bit like a stream of consciousness book as opposed to one that follows more rigid plot structure.  I can't really say whether it's good or bad, because it's really not either.  I think it's more that it's simply not my cup of tea and not really the type of book I enjoy.  I think I'm more of a conventional girl who likes her books to have a real beginning, middle and end with a plot that makes sense to me.

The story follows a group of seemingly unrelated people who seem to have nothing in common other than Ben, who is the unconventional patriarch of the group.  They have gathered at his home in Sag Harbor to party the away the summer of 1969.  Ben is an affluent architect who has adopted this group of young people as his surrogate family, replacing the one he no longer has.  He lives vicariously through their youth.  Andre, the violent tempered and troubled filmmaker and his girlfriend Maya.  Louise the wallflower who is Maya's friend and surrogate mother.  Ben, the idealistic and disillusioned Vietnam vet and his girlfriend Carolina, a free-spirit, summer of love hippie.

 

You follow them as they go through months of discovering themselves and rediscovering themselves.  There is the obligatory "free love" that ends up turning into a rather tragic love triangle within a triangle.  The resolution of this tangled web is unfortunately unsatisfying and rather conventional.  Sex and drugs are ever present as is the discussion of the meaning of life, why are we here, how can I change, how can I be more free?  Each person seems to be on their own journey to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

 

This is a rather difficult book to follow because it doesn't really flow the same as most other books.  I don't think it's a necessarily bad thing, but it does make it a bit more of a difficult book to get into for some people.  It took me much longer than usual to get through the book and I think I'll have to go back and read it again in the future just to make sure I "get" it.

 

If you want a book filled with beautiful prose, descriptive language, interesting people and a time warp back to 1969, this would definitely be the book for you.

The Electric Affinities on Amazon