First published in 1971, Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970, a collection of sixty-two stories, was Brautigan's first published collection of stories.

Brautigan began this work as a novel about his grandmother, Elizabeth "Bessie" Cordelia Ashlock ("Moonshine Bess") (1881-1950), in the spring of 1965. The idea came from an unfinished short story he called "Those Great American Dogs," a chronicle of the lives of his boyhood pets. From this inspiration, Brautigan wrote a story about his grandmother's dog, Mark, who was poisoned by a neighbor. In his story, Brautigan's grandmother poured kerosene into her neighbor's basement and burned down her house. From this start, the idea for a new novel developed.

As he had done with both A Confederate General from Big Sur and Trout Fishing in America, Brautigan expanded his initial idea first as a series of short stories he titled "The Family Tree," "The Neighbor," "The Jewel," "The Children," a chapter about the Native Americans who lived on the land before his grandmother's house was built, "Indian Ghosts," "Washington House Ghosts," "The Ghosts belonging to my Grandfather," "Feuds and Feats among the Ghosts," "Chocolate Cake," and "The Magic Power of the Lawn."

Brautigan incorporated the ideas behind these chapter titles into a single story, "The Revenge of the Lawn." He included family history, his grandmother's lover, Frank Campana and his fear of bees, the pear trees in his grandmother's front lawn. This single story, originally intended as the last, became the first, and gave its title to the book. The idea for a novel gave way to a collection of short stories.

Brautigan, and the book, were awarded the Washington Governor's Writing Award for 1972.

The front featured a photograph of Sherry Elizabeth Vetter, alone, sitting at a table in front of a cake, a reference to Brautigan's grandfather watching his mother bake a chocolate cake, an account included in the title story. Vetter, from Louisville, Kentucky, moved to San Francisco in 1970, following a Peace Corps posting in Ivory Coast. She taught fifth grade at Notre Dame, a private girl's school in San francisco during the academic year 1968-1969. The photograph was taken in Vetter's apartment in Noe Valley, California.

Brautigan and Vetter first met in January 1970. Their relationship, as lovers and friends, lasted for the next ten years. When she married, Vetter settled with her husband in Port Royal, Kentucky.

"The Girl With the Cake: Thirty Years Later", an article by Kevin Sampsel about meeting Vetter at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, 22 September 2011.

Dedication reads:

This book is for
Don Carpenter

Don Carpenter and Brautigan were good, long-time friends.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971
5.75" x 8.25"; 174 pages; ISBN 0-671-20960-4; First printing 1 October 1971
Hard Cover, with dust jacket
Front cover photograph by Edmund Shea of Sherry Vetter, a San Francisco school teacher from Louisville, Kentucky
No back cover illustration or photograph
Advance review copies featured green topstain

• Bob Briggs

Quarter-page advertisement
Black and white
5" x 7"
Rolling Stone 1972

• Cape
• Canongate
• Mifflin
• Picador
• Pocket
• Rebel
• Touchstone

• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Persian
• Russian
• Swedish

Unless noted, stories first published here. The stories in order of their appearance:

"Revenge of the Lawn"
"Two Stories by Richard Brautigan." TriQuarterly 5 Winter 1966: 55-59.
Published in Evanston, Illinois. Featured two stories: "Revenge of the Lawn" and "A Short History of Religion in California."

"Listening to Richard Brautigan" Harvest Records.

On one track of this album, entitled "Revenge of the Lawn," Brautigan reads the title story

"1692 Cotton Mather Newsreel"
"Three Stories by Richard Brautigan." Mademoiselle (71) July 1970: 104-105.
Featured three stories: "1692 Cotton Mather Newsreel," "Sand Castles," and "Pacific Radio Fire." "1/3, 1/3, 1/3"
Ramparts 6(5) December 1967: 43-45.
Published in San Francisco, California.

Included a photograph by Baron Wolman of Brautigan, one of several he took in 1967 for publicity. Also included was a review by Stephen Schneck of Trout Fishing in America. Schneck participated on the Creative Arts Conference program with Brautigan in August 1969.
"The Gathering of a Californian" "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California"
Rolling Stone (36) 28 June 1969: 38.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Listening to Richard Brautigan" Harvest Records.

On one track from this album, titled "Short Stories about California," Brautigan reads "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California," "The Memory of a Girl," "The View from the Dog Tower," and "Pale Marble Movie." Listen to this track below

or, listen only to "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California"

"Pacific Radio Fire"
"Three Stories by Richard Brautigan." Mademoiselle (71) July 1970: 104-105.
Featured three stories: "1692 Cotton Mather Newsreel," "Sand Castles," and "Pacific Radio Fire." "Elmira"
Rolling Stone (30) 5 April 1969: 28.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Coffee"
Change 1963: n. pg.
Published in San Francisco, California. The only issue of Brautigan's own literary journal, edited with Ron Loewinsohn, Change. Also called Change, the Fastest Car on Earth (Peter Manso and Michael McClure 65). Mimeographed sheets (8.5" x 11") with a photograph of Loewinsohn and Brautigan on the front cover.
"The Lost Chapters of Trout Fishing in America: 'Rembrandt Creek' and 'Carthage Sink'"
Esquire (74) October 1970: 152-153.
Published in Chicago, Illinois. Featured a full-page color illustration of Brautigan by Richard Weigand.
"The Weather in San Francisco"
Vogue 1 October 1969: 126.
Written while living with Janice Meissner on 2830 California Street, San Francisco." "Complicated Banking Problems"
Evergreen Review 84 November 1970: 41.
Published in New York, New York, 1957-1973. Edited by Barnet Lee "Barney" Rosset, Jr. (1922-2012) and Donald Merriam Allen (1912-2004) (numbers 1-6 only) with the backing of Grove Press.
"A High Building in Singapore"
Rolling Stone (48) 13 December 1969: 40.
Published in San Francisco, California. Featured two stories: "Ernest Hemingway's Typist" and "A High Building in Singapore."
"An Unlimited Supply of 35 Milllimeter Film" "The Scarlatti Tilt" "The Wild Birds of Heaven"
Parallel 1(3) July-August 1966: 10-12.
Published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Edited by Peter Desbarats. Illustrated by Morris Danylewich.

Inspiration for this story came from Brautigan's reimagining of what folksingers call a "floater verse," a lyric easily transposed into different songs. For example, the lines "I'd rather live in some dark holler / where the sun refused to shine . . ." were used in at least two Appalachian folk songs: "Little Maggie" and "Hard, Ain't It Hard." Brautigan noted these lines in his notebook, and then changed them to "where the wild birds of heaven / can't hear me when I whine." These lines became the basis for his story.

Desbarats notes Brautigan on "The Editor's Page, saying,

The West Coast below Vancouver is also the home of Richard Brautigan, a young American writer, whose short story "The Wild Birds of Heaven" appears in this issue. His first novel is being published by Grove Press in New York.

"Winter Rug"
Vogue (156) 1 August 1970: 98.

Brautigan sent this story, based on an anecdote he heard from friend Bill Brown, to Jory Sherman at Broadside, a men's magazine published in North Hollywood, California, who rejected it saying, "As it stands, there is no way in hell that I can buy this. What you have here is more of a slice of life with very little point as it turns out." "Ernest Hemingway's Typist"
Rolling Stone (48) 13 December 1969: 40.
Published in San Francisco, California. Featured two stories: "Ernest Hemingway's Typist" and "A High Building in Singapore."

The woman referred to as Ernest Hemingway's typist was Valerie Hemingway (nee Valerie Danby-Smith), an Irish reporter, who met Hemingway and his wife, Mary, in Spain in 1959 and traveled with them as Hemingway's personal secretary for the next two years through France and Spain and lived with them in Cuba. Five years after his death in 1961, Valerie married Hemingway's estranged son, Gregory.

Valerie Hemingway's book, Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways (New York: Random House, 2004), tells the story of her time with Papa Hemingway and her eventual marriage to his son, Gregory.

Robert F. Burgess includes an interview with "a matronly friend [Valerie Hemingway] who was only 19-years-old when Hemingway hired her in Pamplona to work for him as a researcher/typist in Cuba after they met at his last fiesta in 1959" in his book Hemingway's Paris and Pamplona, Then and Now: A Personal Memoir (Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. 2000).

The identity of the "friend" who hired Valerie as a typist in New York and then told Brautigan prompting him to write his story is more difficult. He might have been Irish playwright Brendan Behan (The Hostage), or playwright Samson Raphaelson. "Homage to the San Francisco YMCA"
Vogue (158) July 1971: 96-97.
Appeared there under the title "A Homage to the San Francisco YMCA." "The Pretty Office"
R. C. Lion 2 1966: 4-5.
8.5" x 11"; 26 pages; Mimeographed sheets; stapled; Cover same stock as interior pages;
Published by the University of California, Berkeley Rhymers Club, Berkeley, California. Subtitled "The Magazine That Submerges Periodically" and called variously Our Sea Lion or Ah, Sue Lyon. Only three issues. Edited by David Bromige, Sherril Jaffe, David Schaff, and Ron Loewinsohn.
This issued featured work by Anselm Holle, Richard Brautigan, David Schaff, Jo Marsten, Ted Berrigan, David Bromige, Ross Angier, Sherril Jaffe, Bob May, Red Baren, David Schaff (again), Johannes Amicus, Jim St. Jim, and Ron Loewinsohn, in that order. "A Need for Gardens"
Rolling Stone (24) 21 December 1968: 24.
Published in San Francisco, Californina.
Featured three stories: "Crazy Old Women Are Riding the Buses of America Today," "Fame in California," and "A Need for Gardens." The title of "Fame in Califorina" modified to "Fame in California/1964" for this collection. "The Old Bus"
Vogue 1 February 1971: 192. "The Ghost Children of Tacoma"
Rolling Stone (25) 4 January 1969: 30.
Published in San Francisco, California. Featured two stories: "The Ghost Children of Tacoma" and "Lint."
"The Ghost Children of Tacoma" is an autobiographical accounting of the early years of World War II in Tacoma, Washington. Brautigan writes,

The children of Tacoma, Washington, went to war in December 1941. It seemed like the thing to do, following in the footsteps of their parents and other grown-ups who acted as if they knew what was happening. (73)

He recounted killing imaginary enemies and playing airplane in the house with his sister. "Talk Show"
Kaleidoscope-Milwaukee 3(9) 12 October 1970: 1, 10.
Published biweekly Box 5457, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53701. "I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone"
Rolling Stone (27) 15 February 1969: 10.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California. This issue focused on Groupies, females (generally) who followed and attempted to attract the attentions of rock musicians.
"Trick or Treating Down to the Sea in Ships" "Blackberry Motorist" "Thoreau Rubber Band" "44:40" "Perfect California Day"

READ the full text of this story. "The Post Offices of Eastern Oregon"
Kulchur 13 Spring 1964: 51-55.
Published in New York, New York spring 1960 (issue #1) through winter 1965 (issue #20) and offered serious commentary or criticism about literature, film, politics, and music.
This issue (13) was edited by Lita Hornick, Frank O'Hara (art), and Leroi Jones (music). Contributing editors: Charles Olson, Gilbert Sorrentino, A. B. Spellman, and Bill Berks.
Other contributors: Allen Ginsberg ("The Change: Kyoto-Tokyo Express July 18, 1963"), Gilbert Sorrentino ("The Art of Hubert Selby"), Pauline Kael ("Film Review"), Warren Tallman ("Robert Creeley's Portrait of the Artist"), Allan Kaplan, and Joe LeSuer.
The front cover photograph was taken from Andy Warhol's movie The Kiss (1963, 54 minutes).

Lita Hornick, editor, recounts the contents of Kulchur magazine saying that in Kulchur 13,

Richard Brautigan, then a relatively unknown writer, contributed a characteristic piece of fiction called "The Post Offices of Eastern Oregon."
(Hornick, Lita. "Kulchur: Memoir." TriQuarterly 43 (Fall) 1978: 280-297.)

"Pale Marble Movie"
Rolling Stone (42) 20 September 1969: 25.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Listening to Richard Brautigan" Harvest Records.

On one track from this album, titled "Short Stories about California," Brautigan reads "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California," "The Memory of a Girl," "The View from the Dog Tower," and "Pale Marble Movie." Listen to this track below

or, listen only to "Pale Marble Movie"

"Partners"
Jeopardy (6) March 1970: 90.
Published in Bellinghman, Washington, by the Associated Student Body of Western Washington State College.

Also included work by Keith Abbott, Greg Kuzma, Anselm Hollo, Noritoshi Tachibana (translated by Yozo Shibuya and Ron Bayes), Stephen Dunn, Richard Eberhart, James Den Boer, Charles Bukowski, Joyce Odam, William Stafford, Louis Ginsberg, Ann Mennebroker, John Stevens Wade, Stanley Cooperman, Stanley Plumley, Collete Inez, Terry Stokes, and Grace Butler. "Getting to Know Each Other"
Rolling Stone (67) 15 October 1970: 22.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"A Short History of Oregon"
Rolling Stone (26) 1 February 1969: 26.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, Californina.
"A Long Time Ago People Decided to Live in America"
Rolling Stone (34) 31 May 1969: 37.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"A Short History of Religion in California"
"Two Stories by Richard Brautigan." TriQuarterly 5 Winter 1966: 55-59.
Published in Evanston, Illinois.

Featured two stories: "Revenge of the Lawn" and "A Short History of Religion in California." The latter was inspired by meeting a group of Christians while Brautigan was camping with his 3.5-year-old daughter, Ianthe.

Rolling Stone (37) 12 July 1969: 37.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"April in God-damn" "One Afternoon in 1939" "Corporal"
"Little Memoirs: Three Tales by Richard Brautigan." Playboy December 1970: 164-165.
Featured three stories: "Corporal," "The Literary Life in California/1964," and "Halloween in Denver." "Lint"
Rolling Stone (25) 4 January 1969: 30.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
Featured two stories: "The Ghost Children of Tacoma" and "Lint."
"A Complete History of Germany and Japan"
Rolling Stone (33) 17 May 1969: 12.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
Appeared here as "A Complete Movie of Germany and Japan."
Title changed to "A Complete History of Germany and Japan" for this collection.
"The Auction"
Vogue 1 January 1970: 179.
A story about Brautigan's impoverished childhood in the Pacific Northwest "The Armored Car"
Nice 1(1) 1967: n. pg.
Published in Brightlingsea, Essex, England, 1966-1967. Edited by Thomas Clark. Nice is the tenth in a series of issues, each described as "a one shot magazine," each edited by Clark and published as "Vol. 1 No. 1." Each issue had a different cover title: "Once," "Twice," "Thrice," "Thrice and 1/2?," "Frice," "Vice," "Spice," "Slice," "Ice," and "Nice." All were collected in The Once Series and reprinted by Krause Reprint Company (New York, 1970).

Clark apparently solicited this story for his magazine. In a letter to Clark, dated September 7, 1965, Brautigan thanks him for his postcard (the request for a submission?) and says, "I have enclosed a short story called "The Armored Car" that I hope will interest you." Brautigan asks for "two copies of the issue that it [the story] is printed in" and that the copyright notice is printed with the story, "if you decide you want to use the story." Brautigan concludes his letter, "Anyway, your magazine sounds like fun." LEARN more >>>

The dedication for this story reads: "For Janice."
This was Janice Meissner with whom Brautigan lived with from November 1964-May 1966. The couple lived together at three different addresses: 533 Divisadero Street (apartment 4), 544 Divisadero Street, and 2830 California Street. Photographer Erik Weber photographed them together.

Brian Nation lived nearby and provided an account of his relationship with Brautigan and Meissner "The Literary Life in California/1964"
"Little Memoirs: Three Tales by Richard Brautigan." Playboy December 1970: 164-165.
Featured three stories: "Corporal," "The Literary Life in California/1964," and "Halloween in Denver." "Banners of My Own Choosing"
Now Now 2 1965: n.pg.
Counterculture magazine published in San Francisco, California, by Ari Publications from 1963 (issue #1) to 1965 (issue #3). Edited by Charles Plymell who said,

I sat with Richard Brautigan in some of the new head shops and discussed the scene. He had a sense of what the new generation liked to hear. I took some of his poems to publish in an issue of Now magazine (289). . . . It was the time of nude parties and free love, when women's bodies were painted on. The last time I saw Richard Brautigan was at such a party. (Plymell 292-293)

Plymell also printed the first issues of Zap comic with illustrations by Robert Crumb.

Other contributors included Philip Whalen, Bruce Conner, Wallace Berman (collage), Allen Ginsberg, Lew Welch, Michael Bowen (collage), George Herms, and Dennis Hopper.

Brautigan began this piece in March 1964. It deals with his general sense of lack of attachment in his life at the time. Interestingly, there is no self-pity. "Fame in California/1964"
Rolling Stone (24) 21 December 1968: 24.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
Featured three stories: "Crazy Old Women Are Riding the Buses of America Today," "Fame in California," and "A Need for Gardens." The title of "Fame in Califorina" modified to "Fame in California/1964" for this collection. "The Memory of a Girl"
Rolling Stone (39) 9 August 1969: 37.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Listening to Richard Brautigan" Harvest Records.

On one track from this album, titled "Short Stories about California," Brautigan reads "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California," "The Memory of a Girl," "The View from the Dog Tower," and "Pale Marble Movie." Listen to this track below

or, listen only to "The Memory of a Girl"

"September California"
Sum (3) May 1964: 23.
Subtitled "A Newsletter of Current Workings."
7" x 8.5"; 33 pages counting insisde front and back covers; Mimeographed, folded and stapled.
Published in Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 1963 (issue #1) - April 1965 (issue #7). Edited by Fred Wah of the English Department at the University of New Mexico. Ron Loewinshohn, John Keys, and Ken Irby were contributing editors. "Notes," on the inside front cover say, "Richard Brautigan is copyrighting his prose from San Francisco."

This issue included works by David Bromige, Robert Duncan, John Wieners, Frank Davey, Drummond Hadley, George Bowering, Carol Berge, David Cull, Jim St. Jim, Denise Levertov, Alan Kimball, Ken Irby, Steven Slavik, Sam Abrams, John Keys, Richard Brautigan, a review of Louis Zukefsky's Found Objects by Fred Wah, Ed Sanders, Paul Blackburn, Sylvester Pollet, Pat **?**, Gael Tunbull, and Fred Wah, in that order.

A Poetry Folio: 1964. San Francisco: East Wind Printers, 1964.
A single story, printed in broadside. LEARN more >>>
"A Study in California Flowers"
Coyote's Journal 5/6 1966: 81.
116 pages
Published in Eugene, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. Edited by James Koller and Edward van Aelstyn.
Also included work by Gary Snyder, Robert Duncan, James Koller, Paul Blackburn, Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Larry Eigner, Anselm Hollo, Richard Duerden, Tom Pickard, Philip Whalen, and Clark Coolidge.
Imprint varies. Number 1-4 published in Eugene, Oregon; number 5-8 in San Francisco, California by City Lights; Number 9- in Berkeley, CA by Book People; Number 11 in Brunswick, Maine by Coyote Books; Number 12 in Brattleboro, Vermont by Coyote Books.

Grosseteste Review 1(3) Winter 1968.
Published in Lincoln, England. This 48-page issue also featured work by Joanne Kyger, David Chaloner, John Newlove, Curtis Zahn, Peter Riley, and Man Wright. "The Betrayed Kingdom"
Evergreen Review 76 March 1970: 51.
Published in New York, New York, 1957-1973. Edited by Barnet Lee "Barney" Rosset, Jr. (1922-2012) and Donald Merriman Allen (1912-2004) (numbers 1-6 only) with the backing of Grove Press. "Women When They Put Their Clothes On in the Morning"
Rolling Stone (41) 6 September 1969: 30.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Halloween in Denver"
"Little Memoirs: Three Tales by Richard Brautigan." Playboy December 1970: 164-165.
Featured three stories: "Corporal," "The Literary Life in California/1964," and "Halloween in Denver," which was written about an experience shared with Valerie Estes in her apartment at 1429 Kearny Street in San Francisco, California.

International Times 119 16-30 December 1971: 16.
London underground magazine started by Barry Miles. Featured an illustration by "Yellow Pig." Cover shows Fat Freddy as Father Christmas. Contents include a pullout paranoia board game, a full-page photograph of Jim Morrison, and a review of a Yoko Ono film.
"Atlantisburg"
Rolling Stone (61) 25 June 1970: 11.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"The View from the Dog Tower"
Rolling Stone (31) 19 April 1969: 8.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Listening to Richard Brautigan" Harvest Records.

On one track from this album, titled "Short Stories about California," Brautigan reads "A Short Story about Contemporary Life in California," "The Memory of a Girl," "The View from the Dog Tower," and "Pale Marble Movie." Listen to this track below

or, listen only to "The View from the Dog Tower"

"Greyhound Tragedy"
Rolling Stone (63) 23 July 1970: 15.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Crazy Old Women Are Riding the Buses of America Today"
Rolling Stone (24) 21 December 1968: 24.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
Featured three stories: "Crazy Old Women Are Riding the Buses of America Today," "Fame in California," and "A Need for Gardens." The title of "Fame in Califorina" modified to "Fame in California/1964" for this collection. "The Correct Time" "Holiday in Germany"
Rolling Stone (28) 1 March 1969: 30.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"Sand Castles"
"Three Stories by Richard Brautigan." Mademoiselle (71) July 1970: 104-105.

Featured three stories: "1692 Cotton Mather Newsreel," "Sand Castles," and "Pacific Radio Fire." "Forgiven"
Rolling Stone (29) 15 March 1969: 25.
Published by Straight Arrow Publishers, San Francisco, California.
"American Flag Decal" "The World War I Lost Angeles Airplane"
New American Review. Number 12. Ed. Theodore Solotaroff. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971. 123-126.

The inspiration for this story came in a telephone call to Virginia Alder, Brautigan's first wife, in the fall of 1960 regarding the death of her father, Grover Cleveland Alder, in Los Angeles, California. Virginia was not in the apartment and Brautigan took the call. When she returned, Brautigan told her of her father's death that afternoon. Nearly ten years later, in the last weeks of 1969, Brautigan wrote of that afternoon in 1960, and chronicled the life of his father in law in thirty-three short, numbered passages. In addition to the specific reviews detailed below, commentary about this book may also be included in General Reviews of Brautigan's work and his place in American literature, or reviews of his Collections.

The New York Times Book Review 3 December 1972: 78.
The full text of this review reads

Here is a collection of short stories to delight Brautigan fans and demonstrate why his status has changed from writers' writer to American folk hero. Some of the subjects here are a childhood in the Pacific Northwest; hunting and fishing; the down-and-outness of the unheralded writer's life in San Francisco during the Fifties; relationships with women. But, as in all his work, these are only settings for his perceptions about how it feels to be alone in America, as child, lover, husband, writer, and person-in-residence in a vast world made more specific and less lonely by small madnesses and imagined affinities.

The stories, many of them only a paragraph or two long, are characterized by that Brautigan-blend of simplicity, humor, surrealism, nostalgia, and bittersweetness that endeared Saroyan to an earlier generation of Americans. The simplicity is sometimes cloying and the nostalgia sometimes veers into the sentimental, but these are small faults if you enjoy Brautigan, as I do, enormously; if you don't, they'll madden you and make him seem dead-pan precocious and wildly self-indulgent. If you're a woman, you will also be maddened by the exaggerated Beat Generation attitudes toward women. (Many of Brautigan's books come embellished with a photograph of a different and dazzlingly beautiful woman as the front of the jacket. How would Brautigan feel about a woman writer who reversed this custom—peculiar, no?) The last is a serious reservation, but this review is meant to be an endorsement. My own favorite in this collection is "Complicated Banking Problems," in which anyone who has ever felt the apolitical need to bomb his local bank as a perfectly individual response to insanity rendered will find immense consolation. The prose is of a spareness that can be mistaken for slightness or fragility, it's neither: Brautigan is hardly a "heavy" writer, but he's no lightweight. If you haven't read him yet, this collection is a good place to start.

READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of this review.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 1. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1973. 44-45.

A "Letter to the Editor" from Robert James Toye (The New York Times Book Review 27 February 1972, Sec. 7: 27) disputes Hendin's review.

 

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Mclennan's blog entry at the We Who Are About To Die website READ the full text of this review. Werner's review at the suite101.com website