The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe - 2019
By: Tom Wolfe
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 02-26-19
Language: English
Categories: History, Americas
Publisher: Audible Studios
Format: mp3 64/48 stereo
Tom Wolfe—one of the twentieth century’s foremost voices in cultural criticism—went from local news reporter to international icon in 1968, with the publication of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Now voiced with vivacity and vigor by Audible Hall of Fame Narrator Luke Daniels, this nonfiction swan-dive delves into the world of hippies, hedonism, and everything in between.
To most, Ken Kesey is best known as the author of the celebrated novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But for Tom Wolfe, Ken was the leader of the Merry Pranksters, a band of counter-culture bohemians who traveled cross-country in a far-out, brightly painted school bus they dubbed Furthur. The Pranksters were known for drug-fueled escapades, none more famous than the so-called "Acid Test," wherein a party full of people would take LSD in an effort to escape the banality of reality and connect on a higher, subconscious plane. As Wolfe follows the group down their nonconformist rabbit hole, he’s led on a wild trip through the backwaters of the 1960s, encountering the era’s living legends—from The Grateful Dead to Allen Ginsberg—along the way.
©1968 Tom Wolfe (P) 2019 Audible, Inc.
Critic review:
"The subject is a seemingly esoteric one, many of the details are blood-chilling and nauseating, but the book is undeniably a major journalistic contribution to the future analysis of our own and America's strange period of this century."
- The Guardian
About the Author:
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Tom Wolfe is perhaps best known for his work as a trailblazer in the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and as the author of searing best-sellers such as The Bonfire of the Vanities. Originally a reporter, Wolfe worked in news for ten years, writing for publications including The New York Herald Tribune, Esquire, New York Magazine, and The Washington Post. In 1965, Wolfe published his first book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, a collection of essays about the freewheeling 1960s, launching him into the public sphere as a whip-smart and madly inventive cultural critic. Several best-selling nonfiction publications followed, including The Right Stuff, The Pump House Gang, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, works that introduced popular slang—including "statusphere," "the right stuff," "The Me Decade," and "good ol’ boy"—into the English lexicon.
Wolfe released his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, in 1987 to much praise; the book remained on The New York Times best-seller list for over a year after its initial publication. Three of his books have been adapted into blockbuster films including The Last American Hero (1973), The Right Stuff (1983), and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). Wolfe was also the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the National Book Award, the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence, the National Humanities Medal, and the National Book Foundation’s 2010 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A writer with a keen eye for style and all things sensational, Wolfe was known for not only his attention-grabbing writing but also his eye-catching fashion sense—he wore his trademark white suit for decades, donning his ivory tie and matching fedora no matter the season. He died in 2018 in New York City, leaving behind a legacy of deft, neon prose and razor-sharp satire.
About the Performer:
Luke Daniels is the award-winning performer of more than 500 audiobooks. Known for his imaginative story telling and dynamic characterizations, he has always been a listener favorite. In 2018, Luke was inducted into Audible’s Narrator Hall of Fame. With a background in classical theater, film, and education, Luke has performed and taught around the country.
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