Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Look at Flower: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Look at Flower: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Look at Flower: A Novel
    Ebook190 pages3 hours

    Look at Flower: A Novel

    By Robert Dunn

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Capturing the zeitgeist of 1967, this story follows a young girl named Flower as she discovers the hippie counterculture. At turns nave and wise beyond her years, scruffy yet beautiful, heedlessly adventurous and endlessly savvy, Flower is a character for any time, not just her own. From “Cowtown, Oregon,” Flower runs away to San Francisco to experience the Summer of Love and then goes off on train-hopping, hitchhiking adventures across the USA,with stints working at a bank and at a summer camp disguised as a boy, and stays at both a timber camp and then a commune called Old Bison.A picaresque journey,thistale explores the music, romance, politics, and world-changing dreams of the late 1960s.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateMar 22, 2011
    ISBN9781935512202
    Unavailable
    Look at Flower: A Novel
    Author

    Robert Dunn

    Robert Dunn is a Scottish illustrator specializing in children's and picture book illustration. He can be found mixing traditional media with digital elements in his cluttered but cosy home studio in the wilds of South Lanarkshire.

    Related to Look at Flower

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 252

      Mar 15, 2022

      The Art of Fiction No. 252
      31 min read

    • Article

      Porochista Khakpour on Stephen Dixon: An Excerpt from McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #63

      Aug 4, 2021

      When you really live, and when you really tackle that life in your art, the pages never quite end. The narration might drop out, but the story is still in motion. If done right, the border blurs, the boundaries of life and of art fade into each other

      8 min read

    • Article

      Just Make Someone Feel Something: The Millions Interviews Bud Smith and Rae Buleri

      May 12, 2022

      "I come to fiction to suspend my disbelief. The book is a drug. I'm trying to take this drug. Get melted off this drug." The post Just Make Someone Feel Something: The Millions Interviews Bud Smith and Rae Buleri appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Projections of Life

      Jun 1, 2023

      Projections of Life
      14 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      Now Is the Time

      Nov 24, 2020

      Now Is the Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ita “Believe In Yourself ”

      Jun 15, 2022

      Ita “Believe In Yourself ”
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      A Love Supreme

      Oct 9, 2021

      A Love Supreme
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mildew On The Magnolias

      Nov 3, 2021

      I AM shuffling books in my bookstore when a customer comes up to me. Peering over her mask, she says: ‘I guess you haven’t been back home during all this. Do you get homesick?’ It’s a friendly question that deserves a friendly answer. I’ve learned th

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Space for Bette Howland

      May 6, 2019

      A Space for Bette Howland
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 241

      Sep 15, 2018

      The Art of Fiction No. 241
      26 min read

    • Article

      Cosmic Mindlessness

      Jul 27, 2017

      Cosmic Mindlessness
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Reader

      May 1, 2020

      The Reader
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 245

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Art of Fiction No. 245
      42 min read

    Reviews for Look at Flower

    3.5/5

    29 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      3.5 Stars Lucinda runs away from her small farm home & reinvents herself as Flower in 60's San Francisco. The novel follows Flower's adventures throughout 60's America & the many interesting characters she meets. I liked this book & enjoyed it. There were many beautifully written scenes & it really seemed to evoke the hippy 60's in America where it was set. However, I there were a few things that stood in the way of me liking it as much as I wanted to. The biggest was probably the fact that I didn't really get many of the hippy references & references to the 60's music scene. In the first place I am too young & in the second I'm from Australia. So despite the fact that the feel of the era was successfully evoked, I lacked a connection to it all.The second problem I had was that I felt the novel to be incomplete. We are introduced to two characters whom we assume are Lucinda/Flower's children, & they in turn introduce Flower's story through an old manuscript found after their mother's death, but that is the last we hear of them. I understand the whole 'people are not always who we think especially our parents', but it seemed a waste to begin with these characters & not have them go full circle in the narrative as Flower does. The last problem I have is some of the situations Flower finds herself in - ok one in particular. You will see it when you get to it. It was just a little ridiculous. Otherwise, I did really enjoy the book. There are some particularly beautiful passages & the writing style is very evocative. The only advice with a novel set in such a particular time & place is to read it for yourself. You may very well adore it.
    • 1/5
      Look at Flower: A Novel is one of the worst books I have read in recent years. I was a teenager during the 60s so I anticipated a reminiscent treatment of the mood and thought of that era. Boy, was I disappointed. In some spots even the sentence structure and punctuation needed revision. The plot is shallow and unsatisfying. The main character, 17-year-old Flower, manages to escape every crisis (if any can be called that) by improbable luck. I honestly thought I was reading a creative writing assignment by a high school student who'd done some superficial research into the hippies of the 1960s. None of the conflicts in the story are resolved. Flower's character is not fully developed, despite her bouncing around from one "hippie" experience to another. The conclusion does not bring closure to the frame story used to introduce Flower's "manuscript" to her children.Perhaps this book would be suitable for early teens who want some light reading about a bygone era, but readers who seek depth of character and realistic situations will be disappointed with this novel.
    • 4/5
      Received this book as a e-book review copy. I own a Nook Color which uses the epub format. After receiving the book in a non-epub format, I emailed the publisher and they immediately sent me an epub version. I was very impressed.I had read all of Robert Dunn's other books, which are all musically related, and highly recommend them all. I enjoyed this book as well although there wasn't a music theme associated with it. I think it captures the late 60's from a point of view I hadn't seen before. I'm aware of the hippies movement of the late '60's, but Mr. Dunn captured the innocence of the period very well. Just wish the book had lasted a little longer.
    • 2/5
      I couldn't connect with this book. The story begins with "Flower's" children, who discover her journal after she dies. They knew nothing about her life as a hippie and are shocked to discover this. Then the book turns into her journal and we never again go back to the original characters for closure.For me, Flower's character lacked depth. I didn't feel the connection to the life on the San Francisco streets that she was supposed to be living. She didn't know much about the music and avoided drugs and casual sex, yet these things were an intricate part of the hippie lifestyle. Her relationships came and went but she didn't seem to care. This teenage girl, relatively sheltered before running off to join the hippie community, seemingly had no problem adjusting to life on the streets despite the fact that she didn't blend in at all with the people there. We don't learn what happened to her after her hippie experiment or why she kept this part of her life such a secret. The sixties culture has always held a fascination for me - I was a teen in the seventies - but this book was a disappointment.
    • 3/5
      Look at Flower seemed to be a promising coming of age book, but in the end it just fell short for me. I was completely caught up in Flower's world and I felt like it just ended. There, for me, were too many loose ends that were just dangling in the wind. If some of these issues were dealt with, I would have given this one four or more stars.
    • 4/5
      "Look at Flower" by Robert Dunn (Book Review for Library Thing) *sort-of spoiler alert* A young girl run away from the family farm in rural Oregon, Lynda reinvents herself in San Fransisco during the Summer of Love. She becomes Flower, a free spirit living on the streets of the Haight, panhandling to get food and sleeping in the park. Flower reminds me of myself, in a way; she believes in all of the ideals of the hippie revolution: peace, freedom, love, individuality...but she eschews the drugs and promiscuity. Flower did not run away to get high or get laid; she ran to escape the narrow worldview of her hometown, the silent strife in her parent's home, the feeling of being trapped. The Summer of Love gave Flower the chance to really get to know herself, to find herself in a context of her choosing. Then Flower chances to meet someone who challenges her carefree lifestyle. Their companionship provides mutual comfort for a while, but Flower is soon on her way again. She embraces freedom and drifts across the country, bus-riding, train-hopping, hitchhiking... Her journey takes her as far as a commune in New Mexico, where the radical views of the leader cause Flower to question her lifestyle yet again. When she makes it back to Haight-Ashbury, everything has changed. Tour buses crowd the streets, "square" people taking snapshots through the bus windows. Throngs of girls with flat-ironed hair and flowers painted on their cheeks bring pedestrian traffic to a standstill. Flower realizes that the ideals that brought her to San Fransisco have died in a wave of conformity.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading "Look at Flower". Maybe it was because I was brought up during this time and always wished I had the nerve to take off like Flower did. Flower, of course , is her 'hippie' name. The novel follows her as she tries to find a place where she feels she belongs starting of course in San Franscisco. She has some interesting adventures along the way. A good book for a lazy day when you want to read something kind of fun and easy-going.
    • 2/5
      This book was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but it just stopped cold. I am not sure if this was an intentional ending or not, but it was annoying, the story seemed to be leading up to something that did not appear. It started with a son reading his mother's memoir, but never returned to the son, and his reaction to her story.
    • 5/5
      Flower, also known as Lucinda or Cynda, is a girl caught up in the various movements that took place during the 60's. While she is out trying to discover the world, she also discovers things about herself as well as others around her. She went from an innocent flower child to a woman in the midst of growing maturity. I just wish that I knew what happened to Toto!
    • 4/5
      When asked the question "What decade would you go back to?" I always say the 60's, particular the height of the Hippie movement. I can so see myself embracing that time. When given the chance to read Look at Flower I jumped at the opportunity. I really enjoyed this very fast read. I was engrossed at the descriptions of the time and the emotions and characteristic this generation inhabited. It was a great book.
    • 4/5
      The first quality the reader will notice is the carefree nature and spunk of the main character, Flower. The reader will be introduced into the world of "hippie". The novel is fast-paced and fun to read. The reader follows Flower's adventures on the train to taking risks by hitchhiking. Living vicariously through the characters is very possible. The experiences in the novel are unusual and will take the reader for a spin. The supporting characters don't have too much of a say in the novel, the reader will focus on Flower and her quest. The plot is interesting, it jumps around as the main character randomly decides where to go next. This is one of the few novels that appears to explore the true hippie world without focusing too much on the subject that a reader may be "turned off". This novel is terrific for young adults who enjoy exciting adventures interwoven with a bit of history.
    • 4/5
      I just read this for LT's Early Reviewers. . . and I wanted to keep reading. I feel it ended rather abruptly in a sense, perhaps. As another reviewer has said, it also annoyed me that the story never returned to the "present", to get the main character's childrens' reactions to the story they never really knew about their mother and the year she ran away from home to join the "hippie world" in the mid to late 1960s. At first the story seems rather disjointed, perhaps because the point of view keeps changing (third vs first person, and past vs present), although I did get used to it fairly quickly. I liked, also, that Flower/Cynda also feels no need to get high like those around her, that she is confident enough to stick to it, too. Overall, it was a quick, interesting read, but could be rounded out a little more.