An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey
by Richard Brautigan

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Book Reviews of An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Book Review: Pure Brautigan
Summary: 5 Stars

This book made me laugh out loud 3 or 4 times. Very few books have made me laugh out loud even once. Brautigan's "Confederate General From Big Sur" is the only other book I can think of that's made me laugh. So I'd say this is a very funny book, and at the same time a book about death, disease, suicide, depression.

It is, as Brautigan says, "a freefall calendar map." I feel that the theme of the book was stated in the section about the Japanese cemetery -- he felt like the exhumed dead people: he was just being moved around by life without much say in the matter. This book is a prolonged meditation on the aimless, meaningless nature of life that throws us from one predicament into the next.

It is a book about traveling by a man who does not like to travel. It is a book about things that happen to you that no one else cares about. It is a book about all of the little daily events that happen regardless of great personal tragedies, death and dying.

I would not emphasize the fact that this book was written "shortly before his death." This was finished, if we are to believe his dates, in summer of 1982, and he committed suicide in 1984. So at the very least a year and a half had passed (I don't know the exact date of his death).

This is a must-read for all Brautigan fans and for anyone who appreciates autobiographical, non-linear novels. We are very lucky to have this book.

Summary of An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Brautigan uses a journal format, with digressions galore, to explore the contingency of his own existence. He tells of loves past, homes past, the kitchens of friends and the beds of strangers. But like the old free-lovin' hippie he is, he never commits to any single story. Of one fellow he meets in Ketchikan: "He is one of those people who in a normal book, unfortunately not this one, would be developed into a memorable character." The author is forever warning you of a digression ahead or a story he'll get back to later. His references to the book in progress read, in this rueful context, not so much as self-indulgent cuteness, but as a kind of sad knowledge of the unkempt ways of his own mind. An Unfortunate Woman will not bring Brautigan many new fans, but devoted readers will find the dark, self-revealing side of a man who felt middle age like a blow to the head. --Claire Dederer

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