Kat Kinkade, R.I.P.

I never met Kat Kinkade but I loved her two books about the Twin Oaks commune in Virginia. Communal living has always interested me, though I've never joined a commune. Ms. Kinkade was an excellent writer who brought alive the issues and conflicts that arose at Twin Oaks. Her first book came out in the '70s and was mostly taken from the Leaves of Twin Oaks, their newsletter. Her second book was more of a piece, her take on Twin Oaks in the '90s.

She made Twin Oaks sound like a wonderful community, but it suffered from many of the same problems as other communal entities: very low income and people slacking. Still, the commune continues to this day and that's something.