Perks's breakneck memoir of her childhood on a commune in the Adirondacks is a vigorous, dead-on portrait of the joy and confusion of counterculture life in microcosm. Her idealistic mother grew up under a portrait of Abraham Lincoln while her charismatic English father came "from a long line of liars." Together they abandoned the cement of Brooklyn to found a school for troubled kids on 550 wooded acres in the Adirondacks, where Perks (We Are Gathered Here) grew up, precariously balanced between the solidity of her parents' love and the instability of a life without clear rules. She watches as her father bonds with the students at the Valley Commune School through constant, rigorous play—by waging elaborate wars in the woods and taking spur of the moment road trips—while her mother diligently reckons the books and provides steady, heartfelt affection amid her overwork. They strive to create a new world, complete with "free love," the edgy fun of no-holds-barred exploration and the topsy-turvy emotions that accompany an utter lack of boundaries. When things start to go awry, Perks keeps her eyes open and confronts the collapse of her parents' small utopia. Surrounded by this chaos, Perks herself is "exceptionally, always, all right." From her mature perspective, she looks at the children of hippies she now teaches at the University of California and observes: "They tend to be careful, lightly ironic, slightly morally anguished people." But through her frank, sensitive writing she shows they can also be funny, absolutely smart and great storytellers. (Sept. 30)
