Adam Phillips once wrote, “Living by the rules is another way of hoping the future will be like the past.” This quote opens Ann Powers’ ode to bohemian culture, “Weird Like Us.” The phrase may as well serve as the credo for the bohemians studied in Powers’ book, who strive to be different from society’s norm, even priding themselves on their unique qualities.

But Seattle native Powers mourns the death of the bohemian culture she knew as a teen and grudgingly welcomes in a new breed of bohemia. She writes, “And so I declare ‘bohemia’ resurrected, although it has lost that tarnished title and adopted a new group of aliases: slacker, genderfucker, riot grrrl, hip-hop nation, ecotopia, recombinant techno-revolution.”

On the first page of “Weird,” Powers introduces herself as a 16-year-old, first time acid taker. By page two she’s recalling her first drunken concert-going experience, where the “bass player followed me into the girls bathroom and kissed me until I vomited on his shoe.”

Powers is a self-professed “weirdo,” and she writes about the bohemian experience like she has lived it herself — because she has.

Powers comes from a generation where the word bohemian wasn’t a popular trend or a type of clothing; it was who the outcasts were. These were the lesbians, the punk rockers, the black-wearing quiet ones and the coffee drinkers. They were the odd few that stood out from a crowd and never quite fit in at the popular table. It is this group that Powers relates to, and this group which Powers writes of in her book.

But today the line between “bohemia” and “normal citizen” are blurred for Powers and her peers. She writes, “Bohemians themselves rarely agree on what united them beyond … outward signs.”

Powers writes about how today’s culture is making a new bohemia, one that goes against the very idea of the word and makes being bohemian a “cool” thing to do. She writes, “Some bohemian challenges have always been adopted in the mainstream, but the general refusal of conventionality remained a lonely choice. Now, however, this oppositional style has become another norm.”

Powers touches on both the old and new bohemia in “Weird,” but focuses mainly on the bohemia of her day. She tells the tales of the activists, swingers, rebel, and rock ‘n’ rollers equally, focusing on the sexual and social situations in the lives of the oddballs.

Powers offers up the best possible mix of talent and experience in “Weird.” The writing is exceptional, and reads like the pages of a stylish rock ‘n’ roll magazine or novel. Powers comes from the magazine world, so her skill is a finely honed one.

She has written for nearly every major music magazine, including Rolling Stone, Spin and Vibe; she has also written for the New York Times and served as senior editor of the Village Voice.

Powers is not only an exceptional writer but she’s also incredibly smart about it. She writes about what she knows. She didn’t merely follow a group of bohemians on their journeys for six months or a year. She didn’t have to rely solely on interviews to get a feel for the lifestyle. She’s lived it herself her entire life.

“Weird” is full of facts, but it steers clear of reading like a history book; Powers breathes life into the details of a culture that no normal person knows a thing about.

All of a sudden, being a weirdo doesn’t sound so bad.

4 Stars

Rating based on a 5 Star scale.