Customer Reviews (3)

Memories ofPeople's Poet
At a time when the complexities of existence shape even our entertainment, our art, and our literature, it is refreshing to return to the world of Richard Brautigan, (1935 - 1984) a welfare child who reflected on his humble beginnings throughout the 1960s as the people's poet.His novels and his poems deal in beautiful simplicities, spare statements that express the ordinary daily events of life, capturing these moments with words so clear that they leave no opportunity for disagreement. His droll humor is at once amusing, tender, and touching.

This collection of98 of his poems ranges from very brief `micropoems' to longer extended works.His short poems are simply blinks of a creative eye scanning the world:

In a Café
I watched a man in a cafe fold a slice of bread
as if he were folding a birth certificate or looking
at the photograph of a dead lover.

Man
With his hat on
he's about five inches taller
than a taxicab.

But for many of us who fell in love with his language and observations of the obvious the following poem is one of his very finest;

My Nose Is Growing Old

Yup.
A long lazy September look
in the mirror
say it's true.

I'm 31
and my nose is growing
old.

It starts about 1/2
an inch
below the bridge
and strolls geriatrically
down
for another inch or so:
stopping.

Fortunately, the rest
of the nose is comparatively
young.

I wonder if girls
will want me with an
old nose.

I can hear them now
the heartless bitches!

"He's cute
but his nose
is old."

This is little book is a treasure trove of memories of a simpler time, the work of a man who was the people's voice and whose life ended in the solitude of suicide. Highly recommended.Grady Harp, February 10

A quirky and enjoyable collection of poems
"The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster," by Richard Brautigan, is a collection of poems. Brautigan's style is often surreal, often tender, with touches of witty humor. The poems are written in a clear, straightforward free verse. Here is an example of his style (from "The Chinese Checker Players"): "When I was six years old / I played Chinese checkers / with a woman / who was ninety-three years old."

Recurrent themes in the book include love, sex, loss, and loneliness. Incorporated throughout are an intriguing mix of pop and "high" culture references: Jefferson Airplane, Ophelia, the New York Yankees, John Donne, etc. The book often has an earthy flavor; Brautigan writes about such topics as his own penis or the smell of a fart. Some particularly memorable poems include the following:

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," a science fiction vision of a "cybernetic meadow"; the open-ended "Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4"; "Discovery," a joyful poem about sexual intimacy; the surreal "The Pumpkin Tide"; the funny, haiku-like "November 3"; and "A Good-Talking Candle," which invites the reader into an altered state of perception.

Although most of the poems are very short, there is one longer poem: the 9-part, 9-page "the Galilee Hitch-hiker," which chronicles the surreal adventures of Baudelaire (among other experiences, he opens an unconventional hamburger stand in San Francisco). If you only know Brautigan from his weird and wonderful novels, I recommend you read this remarkable collection of poems.

I think of all the people lost inside you
No, this is not The Waste Land, but I've noticed that people who don't even like poems can't help but like this collection, even if they only like the ones with penises in them. Really, Brautigan's poetry is some of theonly poetry that doesn't lie to itself, acknowledging both the author's andthe medium's weak points, yet still conveying honest insight throughendearing prose, with images that fall apart the second you touch them,leaving you with a feeling of naustalgia; this, I think, is the appeal ofBrautigan, and while he might not be a master on the terms of Ezra Pound,he is great on his own terms, and for those that don't know (or care) whothe hell Ezra Pound is. ... Read more

Product Description
You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Nobody's left but C. Card. When you hire C. Card, you have scraped the bottom of the private eye barrel. The fast, funny, slam-bang adventures of seedy, not-too-bright C. Card are a delight to both the mind and the heart. The book was originally published in 1977. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Brautigan touch and the private eye novel
Ya gotta know by now that nobody writes like Richard Brautigan. He's a force unto himself and sorely missed.In Dreaming of Babylon, 1977, he's gotta 40s gumshoe, C. Card, who's so broke he has to borrow a friend's gun 'cause he can't afford his own.But the gun has no bullets so he has to find them somewhere as well.What a guy.

The title refers to C's tendency to picture himself in a land of imagination that takes him far away from the everyday world into a place that rewards him with a beauteous dame (natch) and all kinds of pleasures and stuff.With chapter titles like "Mustard", "A Babylonian Sand Watch", and "Barcelona", it's not hard to tell C. loves fantasizing a lot, as well as moving back and forth between that and the nitty gritty stuff of life.

Of course every chapter is 2 or 3 pages; the largest is 6.Here's a great little excerpt: "'You've broken your mother's heart', she'd always say then and I'd answer, 'Don't say that, Mom, just because I'm a private detective. I still love you.'"

C. has to solve a murder (of course; otherwise this wouldn't be a private eye novel) and the things that happen to him are funny and ridiculous and strange and tense and just plain dumb sometimes.But that's life, ain't it?He goes about his business like a goofball sometimes and sometimes he actually has enough smarts to put two and two together--when he's not off in Babylon somewhere....

You don't read Brautigan for a linear plot and non-whimsical writing.You don't read him if you want characters who take themselves seriously embedded in worlds of text whose author also takes himself seriously.You read Brautigan 'cause you know he's gotta sense of humor nobody else ever did, does, or will have.You read him 'cause he's a guy whose heart is a whole lot bigger than a breadbox and who thinks with it really well.You read him because he knows how to tell a story that makes you laugh and sigh a little and maybe understand a little better how to be in this world.

Read him.

Dreaming: The power of the Detective's Mind
A powerful insight into the mind of a down-and-out detective. The novel captures the essence of dreamscape and proves to be a most admirable read.I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the detective novel genre.

Dreaming of Babylon...sadness, futility, and dreamscapes
Brautigan's "Dreaming of Babylon" chronicles the dreamscape of a down-on-his-luck private eye.Drawing in seedy tones, he explores the inner dreamscape of the character.The escapism of the protagonist, as well as the hopelessness, mirror those Brautigan felt in this stage of his career. The inventive turns of phrase and wry humour are there, but an underlying sadness permeates the plot; the outcome, failures, and cramped, small dreams are known from the beginning.The protagonist is a stand-in for Brautigan, much as in "Sombrero Fallout" and other later works.As one who owns all his fiction, I think of this as one of the sadder books. Andy Reeves

Brautigan's strange slice of mystery
"Dreaming of Babylon" is Brautigan's spoof of the mystery world.In it, we encounter a blundering private eye who discovers a dead body in his apartment.As he sets out to solve this mystery, we discover he has a problem with "dreaming of Babylon," which is a sort of daydream-as-narcoleptic state.Fun, without a doubt.But the writing is hurried and simple, and this just doesn't feel like he was into it.With a little more focus, this could have been more exciting.As it is, it still provides hours of literary fun ... Read more

Product Description
A reclusive young man works in a San Francisco library for unpublishable books. Life's losers, an astonishing number of whom seem to be writers, can bring their manuscripts to the library, where they will be welcomed, registered and shelved. They will not be read, but they will be cherished. In comes Vida, with her manuscript. Her book is about her gorgeous body in which she feels uncomfortable. The librarian makes her feel comfortable, and together they live in the back of the library until a trip to Tijuana changes them in ways neither of them had ever expected. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

How did this even get published?
This book is one of the most god-awful pieces of "literature" that I have ever laid eyes on. I would really like to have a serious heart-to-heart with anyone who gave this thing over one star. This guy just pukes out the weirdest, most ill-fitting similies and metaphors (not to mention he's a ridiculous sexist pig).
An under-achieving 5th grader taking his first creative writing course could do better than this. I mean, c'mon...just read this line: "Her stomach was so unbelievably thin that it was genius and I wondered how there could be enough intestines in there to digest any food larger than cookies or berries."
Dude. Lay off the LSD. Seriously. You're hurting your brain.

my favorite book of all time
this book is my favorite book of all time.the subject matter is simple but the but the style of the writing is amazing and keeps your interest.the book is about a man who works and lives in a library and has lived there for a few years.the books contained in the library are written by random people who drop the books off when they are finished writing them.eventualy the character meets a beautiful insecure woman who he falls in love with. she later becomes pregnant and they end up on a trip to mexico to get an abortion.
i know it does not sound that exciting but i swear the writing and the characters make the book truely enjoyable.

Just a closer walk with thee
Somewhere out there maybe there's a library for all the books never published, by people who weren't authors, for readers who weren't interested.Maybe my reviews should be sent there !Richard Brautigan imagined himself working in such a place, where the overflow was stored in caves (but what about seepage?Whoa, man, what a bummer !)He no doubt thought melancholy thoughts about how his own writings would wind up just in such a place.But as for me, that's the wrong tune.He captured so much about his times, about human nature, about life itself in those minimalist little chapters of his.THE ABORTION is more lineal than his other works-it has a plot that he sticks to, a plot that even got me feeling tense as with some kind of pop thriller.He meets a most beautiful girl who is disgusted with her own beauty, doesn't feel it becomes her true soul.She settles down with the author in his weird library, a place where he has been hiding away from the "real world" for three years.But one thing leads to another, and an abortion becomes necessary.Given the way our great nation is going, someday soon this book is going to be burned; read it while you can.The couple fly down to San Diego, cross over to Tijuana, and find the abortionist.What happens ?Meatball doesn't reveal endings.Sorry.

The Brautigan humor, the whimsical observations plunked down in the middle of a totally different conversation.I like non-sequiturs.Perhaps enlightenment is found in such bouncing, scintillating simplicity.In any case, if you liked any others of Brautigan's work, you'll like this one for sure.Read the rest of them too.Richard Brautigan is gone.We will not see his like again, more's the pity.

Excellent inventive prose
The main character is a librarian at a different type of library. At this library, books by writers who can never hope to be published are given a place in the world. The librarian lives in the library, always answer the silver bell which signifies some new aspirant. They are treated kindly, and told that they can leave their book on any shelf once it has been entered into the registry. The narrator falls in love with Vida, a shy and awkward girl who is trapped in the body of what may be the most beautiful woman on earth. They live together happily for a period of months until she becomes pregnant, necessitating a trip to an abortion doctor in Tijuana, which is also the librarian's first exit from the library in three years.
The Good and the Bad:
What a breath of fresh air. Brautigan's book just sails right by, with every page containing a reason to smile or visualize a stunning metaphor. As with his Hawkline Monster, this is a slightly surreal world in which whimsy overtakes reason. Positives include interesting and believable characters, awesome metaphors, witty dialogue, and a good feel for pacing. The flavor of the book is similar to Kerouac in that there is a sense of wild abandon and randomness that moves the characters along, but it is far superior in almost every aspect.
If I had to choose a negative, I guess I would say that I was slightly confused at the ending, in which the librarian has become a hero on a college campus. I don't get a sense of why he is needed or held up, because he is no longer a librarian. Also, Brautigan includes himself as a character, and that's just too self-indulgent.

My favorite title by my favorite author
Richard Brautigan's writing speaks directly to my soul. I cannot read more than a line or two of his prose without getting the eerie feeling that if I could somehow magically distill my feelings to their perfect essence (which is far beyond my abilities) the result would still fall far short of the understanding of who I am, so effortlessly expressed in his stories. I have never read an author whose writing more poignantly captured such overpowering feelings of love, isolation, and (perhaps frighteningly) understanding. I cannot recommend this book (or any of Brautigan's books) highly enough. I would have given it 25 stars, if it had been possible. ... Read more

Product Description
A fan visits Richard's Montana Ranch in August of 1982.Includes color photos of Richard, his Montana Neighborhood, and his home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Formatting Issues for Kindle Edition
This is a short (about 50 pages) non-fiction book written by a journalist who using the clues in a Richard Brautigan book tracked down the author one year before Brautigan committed suicide. Any Brautigan fan will find it interesting. Several pages in the book consists of pictures and captions, but most of the pages are prose (much like Brautigan himself might write) and laid out in such a manner that it does not fill the whole page. Herein lies the biggest problem with the Kindle Edition - the book appears to have been converted from a jpg type PDF file and as such the type is miniscule and almost impossible to read - changing the font size does no good. I was able to squint enough to see the text and by doing this was finally able to read the book a few pages a day until I was at the end. Since I am a big Brautigan fan I decided to keep it despite this limitation.

Much of the text by the way covers the time period leading up to the discovery of the Brautigan home in Montana and the time period after that meeting and after Brautigan's suicide. The time spent with Brautigan was about 2 to 4 hours during which the author appears to forgotten most of the discussion because of his awe of being with Brautigan and not wanting/being allowed to take notes.

A nice interesting account if you are a Brautigan fan and can suffer through the type. A similar CD-ROM version of the "book" appears here in the Marketplace section of Amazon. Presumably the pictures and words would be full size on that edition and was probably what this conversion was based on. All in all a nice memory of Brautigan tarnished a bit by the poor readability and inability to adjust the font.

A Tourist at Watermelon Sugar
Did you ever want to go back in time and meet an author that changed your life?This pilgrim took me on his jouney back to visit a living Richard who eagerly shares a picture of a vat in Japan where watermelon sugaractually made, and dances like a tourist in San Francisco.This book isn'tlong enough.From the time he sees Richard lying on the hood of an oldcar, drinking champagne with a beautiful burnette, to the kitchen where theclock has been used for target practice, this book is an experience.Savorit like a taste of Watermellon sugar.

A nice read covering an interesting meeting
Given how terrified I am at the thought of asking my idols for autographs or interviews, I have to admire the fact that the author was able to do just that with Brautigan.

I really enjoyed the book, told from anawe-inspired fan perspective.Though I have to admit, horror/ghost storiesare more my thing.

One Last Visit
What a treat, to meet Richard Brautigan and be invited to come back and chat with him.I wish I'd done it.But this author did and I'm glad to have had the chance to share the adventure .The book is laser printedwith photos inserted in the binder.But the thrill of being with Richardcomes through.The best part is the unpublished story Richard tells theauthor.

The awful, awkward story of a beat poet groupie
Richard Brautigan to David Curran is like Willaim Shatner to Trekkies. Iadmire and am even envious that he travelled to meet Brautigan but thispiece is like a term paper. In fact, it appears to be paper in which hethanks fellow students in a college writing class; laser copy pages in awhite binder with color copies of snapshots of Brautigan, his car, hishouse, his barn, his valley, his. . . Beyond the packaging, it's hard totell if the author tries to emulate Brautigan's style, wit or insights. Ifso, he comes nowhere close. If not, the text is still as awkward asBrautigan must have felt when the author arrived unannounced seeking anautograph and an audience. The man he met and writes of bears littleresemblance to the hero he sought.There's no discussion of this irony. Justforty pages or so of "I took his picture, twice, then we went outsideand I stood in front of the mailbox and I calculated exposure with a lightmeter and I gave him the camera and he took my photo." All the whilehe's pushing the merits of ginseng on Brautigan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I wanted electricity to go everywhere in the world . . .
Even though it's important to revise work and emphasize the "craft" part of narrative craft, there's something to be said of first drafts. I guess I could say "raw" or "perfectly flawed" or something like that, but that doesn't really do the stories here justice. Most of these pieces are bizarre, weird tales that twist within themselves and then back out--like literary dreams and money working dirty-handedly together in "1/3, 1/3, 1/3" or the light-humor of "Ernest Hemingway's Typist"--as the form seems to follow no rules at one point of another.

The same could be said for the rest of the collection, as nearly half of it is either boring ("The Post Offices of Eastern Oregon") or too cryptic ("A Need For Gardens") or both ("1692 Cotton Mather Newsreel"). Half of it isn't, though, and there's a sweet sweet poetry to short pieces like "An Unlimited Supply of 35 Millimetre Film" and "Coffee."

I don't suspect that anyone goes back and revises his or her journal or anything like that, and I don't expect it from a collection such as this, either. The stories have a sort of tossed-off quality to them. It's the same sort of feeling I get from the Melvins, in that they work very hard at sounding like they don't work hard at all. It's called genius, I think. Brautigan is no different, as these sixty-two stories don't necessarily come off like crafted masterworks as much as a series of fictional journal entries.

I've been simultaneously reading Bukowski's collected letter from 1965-1970, and it's interesting how similar the two are as far as working around refinement. Buk tended to get drunk(er) throughout the course of his letters, loosening up to the point of letting everything flow from himself. While I don't think that Brautigan was necessarily drunk during the composition of these stories, he's certainly not thinking about feeling. It reminds me of when I was really into listening to ambient music and someone much more experienced with the style than I was said, "Oh man, this song is great! It's like I'm not even listening to anything!"

Of course, that's shockingly stupid. However, I maintain that there's some sort of enjoyment in absorbing art without the mechanics of it all, whether it be listening to music that makes you feel as if it's just in your brain or reading stories that seem like they're just playing your head. After 62 stories in a row, I finished the book and didn't really remember much. As I write this review days later, I remember very little except how I felt, and while I like a good story just as much as the next person, that's kind of the point, isn't it?

Stunning, simply stunning
I considered myself a fan of Brautigan before I stumbled across a copy of _Lawn_ in a bookshop. Now, it's spoiled me so terribly that I feel his poetry has faded by comparison.

I won't tell you that all the tales in this collection are winners. However, I'm certain that (like me) you'll find that two or three leap out & capture your imagination & you find yourself reading them aloud to others. The title story will have you laughing until you cry -- as, probably, will "The Scarlatti Tilt." "Complicated Banking Transactions" is one of the best tales Brautigan ever put on paper.

Most of this book is fiction as only a master poet could possibly write. The prose is downright musical, & deserves live performance.

shades of yellow from a tea cup
brilliant short stories.most of which are a page long.every word picked up and assorted together in a beautiful bouquet.a revolutionary with writing.lets all stand applause.

The Hemingway Antidote
Richard Brautigan is one of the most original voices in American fiction that we have had.Easily dismissed as lightweight by those who think tediously long sentences betoken great intellectual acumen, he is the antidote to Hemingway.In fact, one story is titled "Ernest Hemingway's Typist."Often whimsical, his wry wit cuts sharply.His images are intensely original & creative as demonstrated by this brief quote from "A Short History of Religion in California," "...so I hugged my arms around a tree and my cheek sailed to the sweet bark & floated there for a few gentle moments in the calm."This collection of short stories from 1962-1970 is a mix of the unusual, the humorous, the profound & the nutty.One of my favorites is what must be the shortest short story I've ever read, "The Scarlatti Tilt."Like a prose poem, in two quick sentences he paints an entire relationship."The Betrayed Kingdom" is another jewel about a woman who invites guys home & then makes them sleep on the floor.The story has great momentum until Brautigan gets serious in the last paragraph and pulls the plug."Halloween In Denver" is another hilarious nugget about a couple who prepares for trick-or-treaters and waits all night for some to show up; then as soon as they go to bed comes the knock at the door.I'm not sure what the point of "A Short Story About Contemporary Life In California" is, but it builds to a tremendous climax and is a great demonstration of control of rhythm.The title story about the still & the ducks had me in stitches.

(Reviewer's note: I was reading this book last week when my father passed away.I wondered if I'd remember that this was the book that I was reading when Dad took leave of this world.Then I got to the last line of the book, "Your father passed away this afternoon."So I think I may have some added psychic connection to "Revenge of the Lawn."If my daughter reads it, I'll want her to do it very quickly!)

Brautigan's style is so sweet that you just want to pull his books off the shelf every so often and re-read them.They stay with you like an old friend.This is a worthy part of this master author's work!Enjoy! ... Read more

Product Description
There are no smoking cowboys swinging their lassoes or bare-breasted blondes on heavy motorcycles in this droll collection of highly expressive drawings and watercolors. Au contraire, the inventive shapes and joyful colors recall children's drawings or paintings by the mentally ill. Half-figures of indeterminate gender with staring eyes, big ears and frizzy hair smirk challengingly at the viewer, offering an inventory of possibilities, many of which later find their way into Princeís joke paintings of the same period. This extraordinary little book presents these funny yet sinister works to a larger public for the first time, and allows readers to discover a new side of Richard Princeís oeuvre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a waist of paper
The art in this book could have been done by any average six year old with no outstanding talent for drawing. If it had been done by a six year old I probably would appreciate the art work but Its the creation of a supposedly mature artist. It left me flat. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Glimpse - words, experience & rob mclennan
"This poet insists upon a naturalness of stance and consequently of language, seeming to say poetry is after all day by day, night by night." This quote very accurately describes rob mclennan's approachto his work; however, it is an excerpt from Robin Blaser'sintroduction to Particular Accidents, GeorgeBowering's selected poems, published in 1980 when rob was ten years old, reading spidermancomics and watching sesame street. Yet, this link is essential. Rob mclennan is one of Canada's most conscious inheritors of the TISH tradition, of Bowering and of Wah. rob mclennan is also extremely prolific and one of the least understood active poets. At the age of thirty,he has published five full length collectionswith some of the major presses, including burymy heart in the green wood, (ECW Press), The Richard Brautigan Ahhhhhhhhhhh (Talonbooks), and, most recently, bagne, or criteria for heaven (broken jaw). What appearsat times to be a frenzied rate of publicationis better viewed as a persistent, thoughtfulengagement between mr. mclennan, the contemporaryCanadian poetic canon, and his need to verballycatalogue the minutia of everyday experience. Where rob has begun to make his own way is in the decomposition of ideas into apparently illogical collisions of fragmentary thoughts. rob's voice is fundamentally lyrical and the design of his work is plastic, meaning that it is essential to regard rob's work with the same eyes you would use to look at a painting by, say, Greg Curnoe. To expect didactic meaning from rob's work is to miss the point. To be surprised by the resonance of his fragments with our experience is the joy of rob mclennan's writing.

Richard Brautigan Rip-Off Alert
"Marvelously self-taught in the school of poets," reads the copy on the back cover of this book, "mclennan's work is refreshingly free of pretense and category." mclennan? Not only does Rob McLennan ofCanada vainly use lowercase letters to spell his name like a 99-cent-storee.e. cummings, but this book of bland workshop poetics has absolutelynothing to do with Richard Brautigan in either content or acknowledgement.Shameless. Don't be fooled as I was. A completely regrettable purchase. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

thrilling
This book by a French academic is one of the first I've read on Brautigan which treats his work seriously. Chénetier develops his analysis of Brautigan's work from the texts themselves and not from the legend (often ridiculous, at best uninteresting) which surrounds this author. Ultimately, what comes out of it is a refreshed reading which stimulates my future researchin American literature ... Read more

Product Description
Best known for his novel Trout Fishing in America, American writer Richard Gary Brautigan (1935-1984) published eleven novels, ten poetry collections, and two story collections, as well as five volumes of collected work, several nonfiction essays, and a record album of spoken voice recordings. Brautigan s idiosyncratic style and humor caused him to be identified with the counterculture movement of the 1960s. The authors of many of these 32 essays knew Brautigan personally and professionally; others came to know and respect him through a cultivated connection with his writings. The essays-many of which are new, others of which were published in obscure journals-combine personal remembrance of the man and critical appraisal of his still-controversial works. Includes previously unpublished photographs and artworks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Richard Brautigan
This is a wonderful book, My friend loved it as a birthday present.
Thank you Lisa Fisher ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Photos From The Inside of a Brain
this novel/collection of flash fiction is so fresh, timely and unpredictable as it was when it was first printed. Every page rereadable. A must try. A must have.

TOMBSTONES WEARY
he stumbles around the corner ,the LATE EARLY TOO LATE, MORNING AFTER,musses a near blur andreleases some{ NUGGETS] HIDDEN WITHIN THE DRISSLE far,off from even least BEST , his one joke story SORRY STONED monologues OF himself in despair.

Pure Brautigan, undoubtedly one of his wisest works
Short stories loosely grouped to form a novel about the time Brautigan spent traveling back and forth between, as the title implies, Tokyo and Montana, this stands as one of the author's best, and undeservedly underrated works.Chapters such as "Old Man Working in the Rain" and "Very Good Dead Friends" will leave Brautigan fans, as well as those just getting to know his work, breathless with emotion.A work that in some places containts evidence of Brautigan's growing depression and dissatisfaction with life as age sets in, it is also one of his most personal, mature, and reflective creations.It is well worth searching for, but unfortunately hard to find.

you'll know when you've found one of these stations
if you picked up this book because you've read brautigan before, skip this review, you don't need it. However, if you have no clue as to who could this guy envisioning an express between Tokyo and Montana, and you also think its a futile, impossible task, you're in for quite a treat. This book unfolds like an artichoke's flower, bursting out in strange but remarkably possible colors. Brautigan was someone who felt he had to write, you can tell by how he treats his words, with the utmost care and flippant caresses: How to explain an earthquake to a retarded child? try telling him wind is blowing through the ground, page whatever.Need i say more? Probably, but the pleasure is in discovery, not recognition.

Brautigan's travel diary an intriguing waste of time
For most people, the idea of reading a 250 page book about travelling between Tokyo and Montana, (which Brautigan did for many years before hs death) is about as interesting as wallpaper.Fortunately, this is Richard Brautigan, and his wallpaper is like none you've ever seen.He wanders around, noting mostly sad scenes about the world around him, (like the one about his favorite chinese restaurant.He writes with such pathos that you feel sad and angry when it closes) though this world view can be compared to his mindset at the time; Brautigan took his own life just a few years later.For Brautigan fans, this will provide necessary insight into a normally distant personality.For everybody else, it will grow very tedious after awhile.Interesting idea, but the very concept wears thin quickly ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Brautigan was in many ways the Hemingway of the 60s--but aHemingway with a playful sense of humor. His epigrammatic stories andpoems are clean andsimple, but like a pool of quiet water, sometimes deceptively deep; theindividual parts of each of his books are short, but linger in yourimagination for a long time like the flavor of the best chocolateenvelops your palette; and his subjectsare mundane and even naively treated, but sometimes touch on the profound.

I loved Brautigan's writing as ateenager, hated his writing when I was a snobby East coast academic--but findthat I am once again attracted to his work. Perhapsthis change of opinion occurred because I have spent so much time in his stomping grounds in thePacific Northwest in the past years, or perhaps my transient dislike for hiswriting arose out of his ability to delicately punch holes in pompouspretense. At any rate, if you haven't read Brautigan yet, you mightgive him a try--and if you are already a fan of his, you should rejoice at these recent reissues of all his major works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

i am not alone.
well, i'm glad to see that some other people like this book. sure it's silly and childish and all that, but, good lord, people, lighten up a little. put down your copies of The Brothers Karamazov for a day and enjoy some top notch silliness. i am not ashamed to say that i enjoyed this little book tremendously.

terminal tragedy
thIS books[abominations] banckruptcy ofideas IN sham COMEDY, MAKEfor AWFULL AWKWARDNESS,of lonliness within the bottle SPIRALdrown he wrote. the PSUEDO wierdo, there were three , just hurt me to read, HOW shallow,SHRILL and desperate,NO matter he rebounded eventually, goes to show what alcohol CAN DO to ONCE GOOD writer,

These things don't just happen.
This is the saddest possible book that Richard Brautigan could write.The theme is like the existence of circumstance and coincidence in the movie "Magnolia."It would be difficult to maintain that this book has no theme.There is an appreciation of ancient Greek poetry which is unmatched in contemporary American fiction.This book might be considered unusual in ways that reality reflects only if it exists (and I think it does).

Brautigan's funniest
There are some unfortunate souls who just don't find Brautigan the least bit funny, but for the rest of us, this book is a MUST READ.

Words cannot describe...
This book has literally been the worst book I have ever read. It's sitting as I type in my trash can because I refuse to curse anyone by giving it away.... Don't waste your money. If you still want to read it, get it from the library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Chemicals
I think this book made me who I am.I'm serious.If you knew me, you might think that was a good thing.Might.
I am going to make a film interpretation of this, the best Brautigan story.I won't do a bad job, I promise.

two brautigans in one day
between willard and his bowling trophies and the hawkline monster i didnt notice the the couple thousand kilometer trip i was making.except occasional glances.

richard brautigan writes the most hilarious books ive ever read.he also writes so simply and so profoundly deep about life that you cant help but laughing perhaps crying or just doing both.

if you want a good tale about monsters, twins, ghosts, sex, outlaws, and gothic houses then this is the one for you.do enjoy.

Great fun!
This isn't like most of Brautigan. It's really creepy but also funny. I can't understand why it hasn't been made into a movie, because there are great roles in it for both men and women and the suspense is thick enough to eat.

One of a kind!
I first read this book in the '70s, shortly after it was published, and have re-read it several times. Of the four or five Brautigan novels I've read, The Hawkline Monster is my favorite; it has a goofy, Twiliight Zone-ish quality that just makes it fun to read. If you like stories that are off the beaten path, this one's for you!

A great, fun, sexy romp!
Brautigan brings his trademark mixture of sex, violence, and absurdity to the western genre, and the result is a wonderful, if quick, read.Like so much of Brautigan, this book ends just when you're really enjoying it.The prose is casual and easygoing, the characters drawn with just enough ink to give them character.The plot is a tremendously goofy good time.And, of all the crazy things, a happy ending!Read it, it's loads of fun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Classic Brautigan.
A must for persons of a certain age who can remember when James Dean died.

A Confederate General From Big Sur
An easy read, as is most of Richard Brautigan's work. If you haven't read Brautigan before, this one is a good place to start. His writing reminds me of Twain or of Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and "Tortilla Flat." Travel to Big Sur with Brautigan in the late fifties, early sixties...I think you'll enjoy the trip. ... Read more