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Hippie
by Paul Coelho
Non-fiction
This is an interesting take on an interesting era. It's the 1960s-1970s and all over the world people are questioning social structures and getting experimental with everything from drugs to free love to world travel for the purpose of spiritual awakening. So many documentaries have been made about the era, usually focusing on London or New York or San Francisco. This one is written from the perspective of someone from Brazil.
He makes the pilgrimage to Machu Pichu and discovers that the high altitude can be dealt with by chewing Coca leaves, gets arrested as a terrorist because his girlfriend is from a Communist block country and goes through many other adventures that are generated by the times and social movements.
I found it fascinating to see his travels through the eyes of someone who wasn't either American or English. His time in Amsterdam made me smile as my own visits to the city, decades later, were very similar.
The writing was wonderful and had a certain dreamy quality that seems to come with writers from South America. This was a trip of nostalgia for a time and place I've never been and was a very enjoyable read.
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