Ecotopia

The 30th-anniversary edition of Ernest Callenbach's cult-classic novel Ecotopia has hit the shelves. Readers flocking to the book for the first time seeking an inspiring vision of a sustainable society may be surprised to find a loopy mélange of free love, Marxism, paganism, ritual warfare, legalized drugs, and therapy speak. Though often characterized as a political work, the inhabitants of Ecotopia are so numbingly alike that politics are superfluous, writes reviewer Pat Joseph. But despite its dubious aesthetic merits, it can't be dismissed as a relic.