TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA - Richard Brautigan

Here is a book I finished June 15th 2014 at 8:43pm while at work.  I bought this book (along with 2 other Brautigan classics - reviewed in later posts) from a used bookstore on West Street in Port Colborne in the summer of 1994 as a young high school student.  Therefore, this took me over 20 years to finally read.

The idea to read this book (20 years ago) came from a friend who had lent me a copy of another Brautigan book titled; The Abortion (will review here in a later post)  At the time I was interested in all things "beat generation" and Brautigan fit the bill.  He was classic Beat, and met with untimely death by suicide in 1984.

Without giving too much away, this book is compiled of 40+ anecdotes where the sentence; 'Trout Fishing in America' takes unusual roles.  In the chapters, these roles sometimes include being a product sold by the foot, reoccurring characters like 'Trout Fishing in America Shorty', a dead person undergoing an autopsy, the subject of a parade/rally, and also the act of trout fishing itself, which almost becomes hard to understand after you've been trained to believe it to be so many other things.  Brautigan uses these anecdotes well, and the chapters can be easily read and enjoyed individually. The golden-nugget in this book for me is the potential for interpretation.  Those that are familiar with Brautigan don't need an introduction to his use of metaphor. Brautigan, at times, doesn't require you to look too deeply to find it, like in the chapter; THE CLEVELAND WRECKING YARD, however, often the reader needs to be a little more creative; as in chapters like IN THE CALIFORNIA BUSH.  I enjoyed this book immensely, I liked that I could look as deeply as I wanted at the material and take out what best suited me at that moment.  On the other side of that, I also enjoy a book that can be digested in an afternoon; just to pass the time. Fortunately for Brautigan fans, this book can be both, as it can be reread multiple times and enjoyed a different way each time through.

I recommend this book to all those interested in the 'beat' writers. This has everything you'd expect from this era.  One the the true beauties of  this book for me was how Brautigan was able to take it slow, the book just seems to coast at times, and when I least expected it there was a line that blew my mind with something so beautifully and metaphorically written that I not only had to stop to contemplate what I thought he was trying to say, but also kept me reading until he was able do it all over again. Examples of this ability can be seen in my favorite excerpts from the book, such as the description of the sun in chapter 'RED LIP', and hearing about Hemingway's death in the chapter 'THE LAST TIME I SAW TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA'.  It was easy to feel a pit in my stomach when Brautigan talked about Hemingway in that chapter; knowing how Brautigan would eventually meet his own end; by pulling the trigger himself...bone chilling reading.  I wish I could say more, but this is one of those rare treasures that must be read and figured out on your own.

This book is 182 pages long and took me one day to read (although 20 years after purchase date)

On my sliding scale I give this book a solid 7/10.  I am almost certain 20 years ago I would have ranked it much higher, but as my tastes have changed over the years I am only now able to go as high as 7, and that's in paying niceties to the homage of my youth.