richard brautigan

[zanzinger]

anyone read any of his stuff? almost the antithesis of bukowski.

 

[Father Luke]

yeah. i've read richard brautigan.

at his best he had clear simple lines
which i liked.

 

[roni]

I tried to read 'trout fishin in america', but couldn't.

 

[non compos mentis]

I'm scratchin' my head trying to remember Watermelon Sugar. I read it many, many years ago and liked it then. But, there's a lot of stuff I liked as a kid which I can't connect with anymore.

 

[zanzinger]

he wrote one about giving his cat cantaloupe and the cat loves it.
at the end he asks, to paraphrase, 'why dont we feed cats cantaloupe more often?'
i think its in revenge of the lawn, ill have to check.

 

[hobart]

i am reading a confederate general from big sur, dreaming of babylon, and the hawkline monster right now. his prose is beautiful, funny as hell too. Lee Mellon, I salute thee!

 

[zanzinger]

:)
hes great.
tokyo-montana express and revenge of the lawn are my favorites.

 

[Bruno Dante]

Just searched on this on the off chance he'd been discussed here in the past. All his stuff was put by the (now defunct) Rebel Inc press. It's strange because In Watermelon Sugar and Trout Fishing in America are probably his two most celebrated works (in the UK at least) and neither are his best and the latter is particularly weak. I'd recommend the previously mentioned A Confederate General From Big Sur and So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away in particular. The latter being a very poignant look at childhood in his native Pacific Northwest. Good writer I think, now getting some recognition at last.

 

[Hosh]

I have to admit I'm not 100% sold on his work, but I do really connect with it in flashes, pieces, hunks. I think it's an interesting way to approach a narrative--from many angles at once, stopping & starting, picking up abandoned threads the abandoning them again. I really like Springhill Mine v. the Pill (which reprints The Galilee Hitch-Hiker). He's wildly inventive, so it's good to see people still finding his work.