Three masterpieces by "the counterculture's Mark Twain," collected in one volume, including the "lost chapters" of Trout Fishing in America (The New York Times Book Review).
An author who began his career handing out his work on the streets of San Francisco and went on to become an underground icon of the 1960s and '70s before his tragic suicide, Richard Brautigan gained a unique literary reputation for such works as In Watermelon Sugar as well as for his gentle spirit, satirical wit, and whimsical, elliptical style. This volume includes three of his most prominent works:
Revenge of the Lawn: Originally published in 1971, these bizarre flashes of insight and humor cover everything from "A High Building in Singapore" to the "Perfect California Day." This is Brautigan's only collection of stories and includes "The Lost Chapters of Trout Fishing in America."
The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966: A public library in California where none of the books have ever been published is full of romantic possibilities. But when the librarian and his girlfriend must travel to Tijuana, they have a series of strange encounters in Brautigan's 1971 novel.
So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away: It is 1979, and a man is recalling the events of his twelfth summer, when he bought bullets for his gun instead of a hamburger. Written just before his death, and published in 1982, this novel foreshadowed Brautigan's suicide.
"It's very hard to label his work. Fairytale meets beat meets counterculture? Surrealism meets folk meets scat? The writing is bursting with colour, humour and imagery, mental flights of fancy, crazed and lurid details. . . . The more you read, the less there seem to be regulations and governing forces, ways of qualifying Brautigan. The mind of the author is simply too unbound, too childlike in its enormous, regenerative capacity to imagine." â??The Guardian… (plus d'informations)
I loved 'A Confederate General Of Big Sur' and 'In Watermelon Sugar' ranks in my top five all-time favourite reads. But I didn't appreciate 'Trout Fishing in America', and the three books in this omnibus edition are more closely related to the latter than the former.
'Revenge of the Lawn' contains a couple of chapters left out of 'Trout Fishing', as well as a lot of other short stories, some of which are only a paragraph long. I found them overwhelming, probably because I tried to read them too quickly, and they became something like an overdose of sugary treats.
'The Abortion' was strange and I don't think it totally works. It's the story of a librarian of sorts - his library houses books written by people who otherwise wouldn't see their books published in a million years. Imagine the curator of lost blogs, and you get the idea. He gets his girlfriend Vida pregnant and they go to Tijuana for an abortion, and that's really about it.
'So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away' is the highlight of the collection, mostly because the language is so muted and there's a very real sadness that runs through the story. Brautigan committed suicide not long after completing it, and one wonders if the bumpf-writers are correct in suggesting that the one foreshadowed the other. ( )
Three masterpieces by "the counterculture's Mark Twain," collected in one volume, including the "lost chapters" of Trout Fishing in America (The New York Times Book Review).
An author who began his career handing out his work on the streets of San Francisco and went on to become an underground icon of the 1960s and '70s before his tragic suicide, Richard Brautigan gained a unique literary reputation for such works as In Watermelon Sugar as well as for his gentle spirit, satirical wit, and whimsical, elliptical style. This volume includes three of his most prominent works:
Revenge of the Lawn: Originally published in 1971, these bizarre flashes of insight and humor cover everything from "A High Building in Singapore" to the "Perfect California Day." This is Brautigan's only collection of stories and includes "The Lost Chapters of Trout Fishing in America."
The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966: A public library in California where none of the books have ever been published is full of romantic possibilities. But when the librarian and his girlfriend must travel to Tijuana, they have a series of strange encounters in Brautigan's 1971 novel.
So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away: It is 1979, and a man is recalling the events of his twelfth summer, when he bought bullets for his gun instead of a hamburger. Written just before his death, and published in 1982, this novel foreshadowed Brautigan's suicide.
"It's very hard to label his work. Fairytale meets beat meets counterculture? Surrealism meets folk meets scat? The writing is bursting with colour, humour and imagery, mental flights of fancy, crazed and lurid details. . . . The more you read, the less there seem to be regulations and governing forces, ways of qualifying Brautigan. The mind of the author is simply too unbound, too childlike in its enormous, regenerative capacity to imagine." â??The Guardian
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