2.5 stars. The plot is slooow but the writing was good enough that I wanted to keep reading. The last 1/4 of this is sad, and again slow, yet there was enough nostalgia for me to enjoy it. The writing is poetic and full of imagery, which fits this type of story: It shows, through a boy's eyes, what is was like in the hippie commune of Arcadia; besides Bit's parents, the many characters swirl together in the background; and since the story spans 40 years or more, the vignette-style works.