'Voices from the Farm' by Rupert Fike

Voices from the Farm, Rupert Fike (3)

This month our book club selection is relatively hard to review - the writing is poor, but the subject is interesting. The book describes the Farm, a significant commune in rural Tennessee from the 60’s to 80’s, as told by various participants.  The stories are interesting, though the writing is pretty hit or miss with a somewhat awkward flow.  The best part of reading his book was that we had 3 people from the original founders of this Farm at our book club!  We were able to ask many questions and the stories came alive with their eyewitness accounts.  Originally the group was ~100-200 California hippies going across the country to start a community with the intention of reinventing culture.  In addition to establishing a community in Tennessee, they eventually had satellite communities, did significant charity work outside of the country and established a ground breaking mid-wife/foster program that encouraged pregnant women to visit the Farm and have their babies as an alternative to abortion.  Unfortunately, the two most altruistic endeavors (free child birth and the Plenty outreach in Guatemala) likely caused the eventual breakdown of the Farm from its heyday – as they were not adequately funded.  Overall this book gives an idea of the amazing journey these ‘hippies’ took and how difficult, yet rewarding it was.  Many thanks to Rob, Virginia and Saul for adding such rich color to our understanding by sharing their experiences.