Downstream from Trout Fishing in America : Memoir of Richard Brautigan - Hardcover

Abbott, Keith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884963047 ISBN 13: 9780884963042

Publisher: Capra Press, 1989

Synopsis

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. In DOWNSTREAM FROM TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA: A MEMOIR OF RICHARD BRAUTIGAN, Keith Abbott paints a portrait of Richard Brautigan as a lovable and whimsical friend. Abbott explains the writer's dedication to the art of fiction and his quest to break beyond the pop culture, hippie label that haunted him until his suicide in1984. Brautigan's tight prose inspired authors such as Haruki Murakami, and his experimentation with the line won him accolades from authors like Ishmael Reed, Raymond Carver, and Michael McClure. His work is highly influential and Abbott draws a clear connection between Brautigan's life and his writing. This book is essential for anyone who is interested in the work of Richard Brautigan. Raymond Carver writes, "Truly the best thing I've ever seen written of the man."

About this title

About the Author

Keith Kumasen Abbott teaches writing and art at Naropa University. Publications include the novels Gush, Rhino Ritz, and Modeai of Monterey; the short story collections, Harum Scarum, THE FIRST THING COMING, and The French Girl. His work has been translated into five languages and recently his novel Racer was short-listed for the Berlinale Film Conference 2007. His poems appeared in the anthologies Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull 2006) and Rimbaud Apres Rimbaud (Except Collection Textual 2004). His art/calligraphy appear in shows in San Francisco, Denver, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, and San Antonio.

From Publishers Weekly

Brautigan "looked like a cross between Mark Twain and a heron," in Abbott's strikingly apt phrase, yet this empathic memoir is for the birds. The poet-novelist, best remembered for his semi-surreal fictional whimsies ( Trout Fishing in America ; In Watermelon Sugar , etc.) was found dead in his house in Bolinas, Calif. in 1984. Abbott, who knew him for 18 years, traces Brautigan's slow descent into alcoholism and paranoia. There are revelations about his two failed marriages, sordid antics like watching porno flicks at Christmas and blasting his kitchen wall with gunshot, his childhood of poverty and neglect (his mother abandoned him several times, stepfathers abused him). Abbott is insightful and sympathetic, but the problem is that it's hard to make a perpetual adolescent hold one's interest for 180 pages. He portrays his one-time buddy as a tragic figure trapped inside an "ahistorical imagination." Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Capra Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0884963047
• ISBN 13: 9780884963042
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1