by Dana Spiotta
First published 1970
The narrator arrives at Total Loss Farm with dreams of simple living and shared ideals. The Vermont commune promises escape from mainstream society, but reality proves messier than the vision. Fellow residents clash over work assignments, money runs short, and romantic entanglements complicate the group dynamics. Winter tests everyone's commitment as the farmhouse grows cold and food stores dwindle. The narrator watches some members drift away while others dig in deeper. Personal relationships fracture and reform as the seasons change. Through garden failures and small victories, the narrator discovers that building an alternative community requires confronting the same human frailties they hoped to leave behind. The book captures both the earnest hope and inevitable disappointments of trying to create utopia in rural America.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century, social
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Vermont
Period: 1970s
179 pages · Hardcover · E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.