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readingpanda 's review for:
In Watermelon Sugar
by Richard Brautigan
It would be easy to dismiss In Watermelon Sugar as disjointed, hallucinatory wanderings. And I'm not saying that's an invalid interpretation; maybe that's all it is. But it's also amazingly tactile and immersive for a book written in short sketches and simple sentences.
If you're going to enjoy it at all, you have to abandon yourself to the experience. Everything is made of watermelon sugar? Okay. There were talking tigers? Sure. They live at a place called iDEATH? Why not. Our nameless narrator talks a little about the world in which he lives, and his job (he's a writer, kind of), and the women and friends in his life. It's a basic story about human nature and simple pleasures thrown into a surrealist setting.
I read that Haruki Murakami considers Brautigan an influence, and I can see the connections. Murakami does more complex world-building, but the combination of the mundane and the surreal, as well as the quiet nature of the narrative are things they have in common. In Watermelon Sugar is a little slip of a book (I read it in two short train rides), but you may find the imagery sticking with you well after you close the book.
Recommended for: anyone who's ever had occasion to say, "that's so *cosmic*, man," people who like Hieronymus Bosch, someone who wants to ease into surrealism.
Quote: "I took her hand in mine. Her hand had a lot of strength gained through the process of gentleness and that strength made my hand feel secure, but there was a certain excitement, too."
If you're going to enjoy it at all, you have to abandon yourself to the experience. Everything is made of watermelon sugar? Okay. There were talking tigers? Sure. They live at a place called iDEATH? Why not. Our nameless narrator talks a little about the world in which he lives, and his job (he's a writer, kind of), and the women and friends in his life. It's a basic story about human nature and simple pleasures thrown into a surrealist setting.
I read that Haruki Murakami considers Brautigan an influence, and I can see the connections. Murakami does more complex world-building, but the combination of the mundane and the surreal, as well as the quiet nature of the narrative are things they have in common. In Watermelon Sugar is a little slip of a book (I read it in two short train rides), but you may find the imagery sticking with you well after you close the book.
Recommended for: anyone who's ever had occasion to say, "that's so *cosmic*, man," people who like Hieronymus Bosch, someone who wants to ease into surrealism.
Quote: "I took her hand in mine. Her hand had a lot of strength gained through the process of gentleness and that strength made my hand feel secure, but there was a certain excitement, too."