Far Out Man
Tales of Life in the Counterculture
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The founder of Utne Reader chronicles his adventures on the frontlines of American culture—from the Vietnam era to the age of Trump—as a spiritual seeker, antiwar activist, and minor media celebrity.
“Fascinating . . . a remarkable piece of social history.”—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
Far Out Man is the story of a life-long seeker who was occasionally a finder as well. In 1984, Eric Utne founded Utne Reader, a digest of new ideas and fresh perspectives percolating in the arts, culture, politics, business, and spirituality. With the tag line “The Best of the Alternative Press,” the magazine was twice a finalist for a National Magazine Award and grew to more than 300,000 paid circulation. In the nineties, the magazine promoted the Neighborhood Salon Association to revive the endangered art of conversation and start a revolution in people’s living rooms. More than 18,000 people joined, comprising nearly 500 salons across North America. Utne devoted the magazine to bringing people together to help make the world a “little greener and a little kinder.”
Far Out Man serves as a chronicle of both an individual life and a generation, covering the conflicts of the Vietnam era, the hopes and excesses of the sexual revolution and the Me Decade, the idealism and depredations of the entrepreneurial eighties and nineties, and the promise and perils of the digital age. Ultimately, Far Out Man is the story of Eric Utne’s lifelong search for hope, how he lost it, and what he found on the other side that sustains him in his darkest moments. It is a book dedicated to helping all seekers become finders.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this ardent memoir, Utne (Brenda, My Darling), founder of the Utne Reader, frames his life as an American archetype: the young man seeking happiness, community, and meaning. Utne details his explorations of the 1960s and '70s counterculture in a conversational tone, with evocative stories of his "hippie crash pad" in St. Paul, Minn., and hitchhiking to San Francisco, as well as moments of comedy, as when he nearly burns down his house lighting sage on fire for a group ritual. The narrative is generally riveting thanks to its insight into multiple alternative cultural movements of the past half century; along the way, Utne sold psychedelic mushrooms, embraced a macrobiotic diet, founded New Age self-help groups for men, and taught middle schoolers at a Waldorf school. However, the personal aspects of the memoir, such as anecdotes of his marriages, feel more detached than his counterculture narrative, and the repeated mention of well-known friends can come off as name-dropping. Still, Utne's earnestness and honesty as he admits to mistakes during his life such as dropping out of college and starting a business with his mercurial wife are charming. Readers looking for stories of the swinging '60s will find this an entertaining personal testament.