Dharma Girl: A Road Trip Across the American Generations

by Chelsea Cain

Looks back at the author's past, when she lived on an Iowa communal farm and was called Snowbird, detailing her life as a hippie and her mother's more recent bout with skin cancer

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Womens, Biography, Biography Memoir

180 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Chelsea Cain is the New York Times bestselling author of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, The Night Season, Kill You Twice, and Let Me Go. Her next book One Kick (August, 2014) will be the first in her Kick Lannigan thriller series. Her book Heartsick was named one of the best 100 thrillers ever written by NPR, and Heartsick and Sweetheart were named among Stephen King's Top Ten Books of the Year. Her books have been featured on HBO's True Blood and on ABC's Castle. Cain lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chelsea Cain is an American novelist, though her first book, 1996's Dharma Girl (published when Cain was 24) is a memoir. I generally hold a good deal of skepticism for memoirs published by young (20s/30s/sometimes 40s) authors, as it's difficult at those ages to see beyond oneself and one's relatively narrow life experiences to write a memoir that'll resonante broadly rather than skew self-indulgently. Unfortunately this memoir is largely self-indulgent, as Cain recounts her road trip with her mother from California (where Cain had just finished college) to Iowa City, Iowa (where Cain was born and spent her early years on her parents' communal farm) to rediscover her roots. Narration of the road trip is interspersed with Cain's childhood recollections as she refers to herself in the third person, romanticizes her parents and the friends they lived with, and recounts the story of how her dad got in legal trouble for avoiding the draft. The writing is engaging - I'm glad Cain has since had success writing fiction - and the memoir is brief - though I imagine Cain would tell this story a lot differently if she were to rewrite it today in her 50s.

My statistics:
Book 275 for 2025
Book 2201 cumulatively

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After hearing Chelsea Cain speak at a writers' conference banquet this summer and reading the first two of her thriller novels, I decided to go back to her very first book, which she published at the tender age of 23.

When I was a young girl, I always felt that I'd been born in the wrong era and was fascinated with "hippie" culture. Not so much the drugs, rock and roll, and sex, but more the living on a farm, growing vegetables, commune type of experience. In reality, I probably would have hated the communal living.

When Cain's mother is diagnosed with melanoma, she decides she'd like to move back to Iowa, where she was born and raised on a commune farm. She and her mother drive from Portland to Iowa City, where she sets up camp for awhile. The book chronicles their road trip and their early days in Iowa. It turned out to be a quick read, and I enjoyed the stories about the early days of "Snowbird" and how she remembers her childhood.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really touching, and funny too. It made me feel nostalgic for my own childhood. In a strange way too, I felt like I wanted the life that Chelsea's parents had. Living on a farm/commune, living off the land, being free from society.
The book begins with Chelsea realizing how meaningless her own life has become, her neat little life in Irvine, California. She realized she wants more, wants to be more. It was close to home for me, since I feel a bit in the same place right now. I dream of leaving California and going back to find my own Iowa City.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

June 2016

This is probably the fifth time I have read this book over the years, and I realized as I read it today (yes, in one day), that I go back to Iowa City each summer for the same reason as Chelsea (who worked on the Daily Iowan at the same time I did, although I doubt very much she knows me).

"It's me," I tell her. "I've come back to help you look for berries."

---
March 2014

Not a favorite because it is great literature, like Wuthering Heights, but a favorite because it is a good counterculture book with many references to my beloved Iowa City.

[Sheela Word · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The author takes a trip to Iowa, relives her early years on a hippie commune, and develops some insights about how she relates to her parents and the larger world. The book was well-written and interesting, but felt a little slight. Also, in some passages the author describes one of her past selves in the third person ("Snowbird comes in," etc.) or even has a conversation with that self -- a device that I didn't much care for.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Driving cross country with her mother allows our narrator & author, Chelsea Cain, to review and revisit the part of her childhood she shared with her folks in Iowa. The honesty feedback serves both mother and daughter well, and strengthens recall of years of communal living on an Iowa farm. The drive itself is uneventful, and their arrival quiet, but the unanswered questions vanish like clouds in dramatic, strong wind.

[Amy Hufford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This caught my eye because I was born and raised in Iowa, the author is roughly my age, and I'm a fan of hers. It's a pleasant read about a young woman learning what it means to be "from" somewhere, what makes a place home, etc. It was fun for me to be able to visualize the towns and places she mentions in Iowa City and think "Oh, I've eaten/shopped/had coffee there".

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up while picking up the latest Joe Queenan. It was very short. I liked its take on Gen-x and the Hippie generation. I like when she's feeling disatisfied about her Cali life and how they don't do anything. I feel bad for her roomie who can't track it. I was pretty happy with it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got hooked on Cain's heat series and couldn't stop until I read them all now I'm anxious for the next installment. This is a lovely little tale about growing up in a 70's commune and coming of age while starting at Iowa Writers Workshop a very pleasant read.

[Diana H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting non-fiction title from an excellent horror/mystery/thriller writer.
This is a story about Chelsea as she was growing up with hippie parents and how she went home to Iowa to find herself as an adult.
Well-written and pretty interesting.
A nice read.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was actually a little sad when this book ended! I loved the style of writing...easy yet poetic in it's own simple beauty. I could really relate to the author and her experiences. Overall, I loved this book!

[Shooptroopies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually not sure when I read it but it was a long time ago. (Her mother had been a patient where I worked.) I remember Chelsea saying then that if she wrote another book, it would not be about her relatives. I'm happy too see that she has written MANY more books.

[Noni Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, easy to read memoir by a not famous woman. Pleasant reading. A nice break from novels, mysteries, and historical romances that are my frequent fare. You may especially like it if you come from Iowa!

[Russty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book...

One unanswered question: There seemed to plenty of time, at some point, for her mom to the picture made in the middle of the field in her undies... Maybe not on the initial trip, but on a follow-up???

[Angie McCloskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could relate to the authors close bond to her hippie-at-heart Mother. Enjoyed the road trip as much as they did!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book when I was 18, although I think it had more to do with a sense of nostalgia for my youth than with the book itself. Hmmm. I should read this book again.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absolutely darling little book! I wish it were longer, as I really enjoyed the ride.

[Carrie]

books I've read,memoir

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another road trip sort of book, but this one felt disjointed somehow. I like how Cain portrays her complex relationship with her mother, but the 'going back to Iowa' part was not compelling.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching memoir of a young woman heading back to Iowa, retracing her hippie parents' roots. I enjoyed reading the family history.

[Jill Talley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's funny, I didn't know who Chelsea Cain was when I purchased this book. I don't remember how it was recommended to me or where i heard of it. But i do see that she's written quite a few other books in a totally different genre. WTS, i thought this book was amazing.

This is the kind of book that gave me such FEELINGS while reading it - that sometimes they were too much and i had to stop for a bit. Just feelings of looking back to the past, and wanting to do the same kind of thing that she did - even tho the places i lived were not as wild and "interesting" - and my parents surely were not. (But i'm a person that "feels too much," so keep that in mind.)

It's a short book. It made me cry - but not sob. Even had a bit of humor in it. When you hear that her mother is ill, don't worry. There is no awful ending there (in the book).

I thought her writing was beautiful and descriptive. I was truly impressed by this book and i'm very happy i picked it up. I highly recommend it if you like to FEEL. :)

[Susan Berlien · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so badly wanted to like this book. She rambled.... she talked about herself in the third person and as if she was in the next car driving past ... 🤷🏻‍♀️ weird. In the end I didn’t feel like there was a lot of meaning to it all. Bummer.

[G_lalonde]

Chelsea shares her life with us. Moments and people who have made a lasting impact. She is raised as a young child by her hippie parents on a farm. Later, her mother battles with cancer, and so they embark on a road trip where she (Chelsea) wants to return to her roots and find herself.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spare book that provides insight into one family's experience on a communal farm in Iowa in the early 1970s, revisited in the '90s by a now-grown woman and her mother.

[Camille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I reviewed this book on my blog - I thought it was unremarkable... Rather than recreate it, I posted it here: https://wineandhistory.wordpress.com/...

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book to get acquainted with the editor of Wild Child.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

My usual reaction to a memoir, except the Iowa City setting gave it additional interest.