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A review by michaeljohnhalseartistry
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
4.0
My third read of 2016, Trout Fishing in America is a collection of short stories with recurring characters and themes. The phrase, “Trout Fishing in America” is used in many different ways, from names of characters to places, even a hotel at one point. It was written by Brautigan in 1967, he was an American novelist active during the 60′s and 70′s who’s known for his satires and black comedic works.
I first discovered Brautigan while listening to Slowblow. The band had one song that featured a reading from one of Brautigan’s books and I thought the monologue was so bizarre and interesting that I needed to know who came up with it. I had never heard of Brautigan before, despite being a famous American author, and wasn’t too sure what to make of this book when I picked it up, but as I read it, I really enjoyed it.
Trout Fishing in America was such a good read. It’s hilarious, and very reflective of American culture of the 60′s (not that I was around then), but as I read through the shorts in the book, I got a sense of what that period was like. Brautigan isn’t really a flamboyant writer, his sentences are short and rough, and get the point across, but he does it with such directness and hilarity.
One of the passages I underlined, and is a great example of his writing style, reads: A little ways up from the shack was an outhouse with its door flung violently open. The inside of the outhouse was exposed like a human face and the outhouse seemed to say, “The old guy who built me crapped in here 9,745 times and he’s dead now and I don’t want anyone else to touch me. He was a good guy. He built me with loving care. Leave me alone. I’m a monument now to a good ass gone under. There’s no mystery here. That’s why the door’s open. If you have to crap, go in the bushes like the deer.”
“Fuck you,” I said to the outhouse. “All I want is a ride down the river.”
Literally the whole book is full of weird gems like this. It was such a good read.
The only problem I had with it, and why I’d give it 4/5 stars, is that at times it felt kind of repetitive, especially towards the end. It sort of seemed to run out of steam in the last few chapters. That being said, I did enjoy the ending and the use of mayonnaise.
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FOR MORE BOOK REVIEWS, PHOTOS, AND MY OWN NOVEL SERIES, CHECK OUT MY BLOG:
www.michaeljohnhalse.wix.com/michaeljohnhalse
I first discovered Brautigan while listening to Slowblow. The band had one song that featured a reading from one of Brautigan’s books and I thought the monologue was so bizarre and interesting that I needed to know who came up with it. I had never heard of Brautigan before, despite being a famous American author, and wasn’t too sure what to make of this book when I picked it up, but as I read it, I really enjoyed it.
Trout Fishing in America was such a good read. It’s hilarious, and very reflective of American culture of the 60′s (not that I was around then), but as I read through the shorts in the book, I got a sense of what that period was like. Brautigan isn’t really a flamboyant writer, his sentences are short and rough, and get the point across, but he does it with such directness and hilarity.
One of the passages I underlined, and is a great example of his writing style, reads: A little ways up from the shack was an outhouse with its door flung violently open. The inside of the outhouse was exposed like a human face and the outhouse seemed to say, “The old guy who built me crapped in here 9,745 times and he’s dead now and I don’t want anyone else to touch me. He was a good guy. He built me with loving care. Leave me alone. I’m a monument now to a good ass gone under. There’s no mystery here. That’s why the door’s open. If you have to crap, go in the bushes like the deer.”
“Fuck you,” I said to the outhouse. “All I want is a ride down the river.”
Literally the whole book is full of weird gems like this. It was such a good read.
The only problem I had with it, and why I’d give it 4/5 stars, is that at times it felt kind of repetitive, especially towards the end. It sort of seemed to run out of steam in the last few chapters. That being said, I did enjoy the ending and the use of mayonnaise.
---
FOR MORE BOOK REVIEWS, PHOTOS, AND MY OWN NOVEL SERIES, CHECK OUT MY BLOG:
www.michaeljohnhalse.wix.com/michaeljohnhalse