Fairy tales for adults. That’s what I first thought on encountering Brautigan weeks after I graduated from college. More accurately, playful children’s stories for young adults of a hippie leaning.
With his surrealistic or perhaps warped vision taking a simple voice, and his fondness of simile and imagery, his was a unique voice that amused many of us and annoyed many others.
Trout Fishing in America barely touched on fishing of any sort. Confederate General at Big Sur and In Watermelon Sugar were about, well, shyness and innocence as much as anything.
His usually very short poems were mousetraps of longing and loss.
Their freshness still beat 99 percent of the literature that surrounded them.
If only his sweet sadness weren’t soured by the pressures of success.
Jnana's Red Barn 