Trout Fishing In America, Pill Vs Springhill Mine Disaster, In Watermelon Sugar

To read again

Simply one of the best books ever written. It's difficult to say anything meaningful about this book that hasn't already been said. Instead, I'll just insert this poem I wrote while reading it:Response of Trout Fishing in America I am reading a book called Trout Fishing in America, and it is the most delicate book in the world. The pages are very yellowbrown, and they feel like they will crumble like stale piecrust if I turn them. The cover has corners missing; its rib it stitched with duct tape, but it does not adhere to the book inside. It’s a newspaper hat in a convertible on the highway. I think that maybe I shouldn’t read this book, that I should put it away like some Egyptian scarab. Maybe it is the Constitution, and I should not touch it with my indelicate fingers for fear that I rob later generations of its historic significance. I think: maybe I should buy another copy so that this one stays safe on the shelf and I can always look at it like a Japanese in the Louvre. But I can’t. I know this is what I must read. It has all the warmth and heart of my teenage years, college, drunken poetry, my sad loss of everything, my complacency, indifference, and middlepath numb. It is a stream flowing over me and a diamond shooting through me. These fragile, brittle pages, this dust barely congealed, beats in my hands and in my eyes like Braughtigan’s sadbeautiful soul.

I read a decent bit of magical realism, and all of this carries those elements - I wasn't surprised to learn Haruki Murakami lists him as an inspiration.The books are definitely products of their time, but that's always going to be the case with fiction, and between reading and not reading this I'd recommend you read it.Trout Fishing in America is effectively a series of vignettes linked by a common theme (three guesses as to what it is - although sometimes there's no actual trout in the story). The Pill vs the Springhill Mine Disaster is a poetry collection. And then In Watermelon Sugar is the closest thing to a traditional novel here, the chapters are still very short and it's absolutely surreal, but there is an overarching plot and side plots/characters and everything.Overall I found the prose crisp and evocative, and I've already mentioned the magical realism in the imagery.

I bought this for one of my grandsons. I read every thing Richard Braughtigan wrote when I was in high-school. It irritated my literature teachers, but kept me laughing throughout my most trying years of life. I thought he needed a lift of spirit, with all that's going on today. Braughtigan has some societal wisdom interspersed in his wit also, which may help heal the scars inflicted by human nature. His, and JRR Tolkein's works mean the world to me.

His books are written like no other.Definitely a must read i

Trout Fishing in America is a bit abstract and took some time to get used to, but there's something of real, honest beauty in Brautigan's style. The poetry, similarly, caught me off guard, as so much of it breaks typical poetic conventions, but I found myself understanding it in a very personal way.

I have read this book about 40 times and never even get tried of it. I first read it in about 1970. Use your imagination when reading this and you will really appreciate it.

I’d known about “Trout Fishing in America” and “In Watermelon Sugar” for years before I decided it was time to see what it was Brautigan might be offering up to his readers. As it happened, after I’d absorbed a few chapters of each I reached a point when I couldn’t overlook how, gradually, the text was becoming so incoherent as to interfere with any satisfaction a reader (well, this reader, anyway) of these short novels might reasonably experience. I wondered how I would explain Brautigan to someone who might ask, and I decided that something along the lines of “Imagine reality overlaid with an unreality comprised of images that can be disturbing or delightful, but an unreality that’s too unrelenting, tedious and exhausting to be ultimately unsatisfying.”.....From CMR, Morgan Hill, CA.

There is water damage all around the edges. Brown splotches, if not in the margins, then spread right across the page. I hope this is not mould.

Write your review here [Required]. Actually it ain't Trout Fishing, it's a three in one of Trout Fishing, another book about iDeath (tell that to Steve Jobs) and a poetry collection. All good.

The Pill versus the Springhill Mine DisasterI enjoyed reading this series of poems very much I have not read much poetry in the past. I spent a lifetime in engineering reading technical documents and non-fiction. However, in retirement, I have engaged on a project to read the literature which so many instructors tried to teach me in school. Brautigan was one of the authors taught to me in first year college. I suppose that the instructor saw Brautigan’s work as relevant to those of us who were young 40 and 50 years ago. I know I enjoyed the class. With my retirement project, I have found that there are many ways to write history than I had realized . Non-fiction is but one of them but there are many other ways to gain insight into human society and personal human psychology. Engineering is about creating things that are useful and that means having an understanding of human needs and wants. There are many ways to gain such an understanding. Poetry like this is one of those ways.The poem that most affected me in the collection was: “A Good-Talking Candle”—“I had a good-talking candle last night in my bedroom./ I was very tired but I wanted somebody to be with me, so I lit a candle/ and listened to its comfortable light until I was asleep.” There are a number of these very short poems in the collection. It is with these that, in my opinion, Brautigan is most effective. They are short one or two line lyrics or short stories. They do capture personal emotion. I found the longer poems to be uneven. Some like “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” are very effective. Others, however, have obscure and rather precious imageryIn Watermelon Sugar“In Watermelon Sugar” is a book that is written very simply. It is not a trivial book. It is quite a profound book. It is a book that was of its time. The time was of the 1960s and the 1970s. This was the era of Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. It was the time when gentleness was the ideal. “In Watermelon Sugar” describes a community that is permeated by that gentleness. iDeath could be regarded as the ideal commune in which people spontaneously cooperate to the benefit of the whole. However, within it are attributes that belie its gentle nature. Just as within the 60s and 70s were the attributes of self-indulgence and irresponsibility that led to the end of the hippie experiment and the rise of the Me generation.The culture of iDeath lacks a true sense of community. There is no real caring for others just a sense of self and a community that cannot accept the otherne4ss of Margaret. The lack of community in iDeath bred the nihilism of InBoil. It also led to the social rejection and ostracism of Margaret. Margaret’s rejection led to her suicide which was, in turn, met with indifference. There is no sense of loss, regret or remorse in her death. There is no responsibility. There is only a sense of “Me”.---------------------------------------“Trout Fishing in America”;This for me is a book full of memories. In my retirement, I am following a project to revisit the books that people tried to use to teach me the world of literature. I didn’t understand then over 50 years ago, but I think that that that lifetime may have prepared me for what they were trying to teach.I remember “Trout Fishing in America” from the excerpts provided to us in that first year English literature course at Saint Lawrence in the fall term of 1970. It was only three years in publication then. It meant something to me then and it means something to me now. There is no anger in this book. There is no hate, no evil. It has aspects of “On the Road” as a beat exploration of America and in the late 60s as a rendition of the hippie ideal. There is truth in this book and that truth is something that seems to have been lost of the 50 years since its publication. I spent those 50 years studying and working in high tech. It was nice to read the books account of a pre-tech San Francisco and read about San Jose, Sunnyvale and the rest without the tech domination. Tech has brought some major social changes. Tech has enabled the individual and its social technology has enabled its opposite in factionalism and echo chambers. “Trout Fishing in America” seems to have come from a different time which had different ideals. It is just a book in which people meet each other without suspicion and envy.I remember this book. I enjoyed the excerpts in class but didn’t have the insight to accept the book for what it was when I tried to read it. I was looking for the big idea and missed it the first time I read it. Just be nice to each other.

Having grown up in the time of "Trout...", it was a nostalgic read. I'm not sure that I appreciate the word salad he invented but it still resonates with the 60's feel.

I remember reading these books in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I have always enjoyed Brautigan’s poetry, but had forgotten about his work. I’m glad I have rediscovered his work.