Meh. I lived in Marin County for 12 years, and visited Bolinas several times. The descriptions of people and the 'culture' in the TFA are really good -- but overall IMHO is a grand romanticizing of the place. It's a genuine "hippie town" that epitomizes a California of another time, for sure. Its sewage issues are real, and represent so much of the overall absurdity of the place. All that, and and the overarching hostility of its residents towards outsiders made them seem to me, ultimately, as being people not above it all, but more washed-out. Lots of hypocrisy there.
Marin is a truly strange land. I go up there a lot (I live in the South Bay) mostly to go hiking and maybe pick up some oysters in bulk for shucking at home, and the locals do seem to have a peculiar mix of traits that seems both genial and hostile all at once.
It’s like a museum curator: “look, but don’t touch.” They welcome you and your money, but only to the point of you changing anything about their cloistered lifestyle.
