An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey by Richard Brautigan
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Book Reviews of An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey
Book Review: Glad I read it
Summary: 5 Stars
It took me several months to read this book. Not that its long and not that its difficult to read either. I just had to take it in slowly. I have made it a mission of mine to read every Brautigan book.
I started with Watermellon Sugar and a friend gave me Tokyo Montana Express after picking it up at a garage sale.Read several others too.
My suggestion read the book in small doses.Just like it was written.
And to me, well I am dissappointed that Brautigan commited suicide, but it wasnt right after he finished this book.
It was 2 years later. And kind of ironic, that as in the book where he stayed in the house where the women commits suicide, Well he too stayed in his own house after he committed suicide.
( Ill have to check , but I do believe there was one more book written after this one)
If you like Brautigan, you'll like this.
I especially like the part where he visits the cemetary,the cuckoo clock, and the man eating a donut.
Book Review: Overwhelming Sadness--A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
As a novelist with my debut novel in its initial release, I am fascinated by this glimpse of one of my all-time favorite authors nearing the end of his career. Richard Brautigan's suicide nearly two decades ago haunts American literature almost as darkly as Hemingway's does from four decades ago. In AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN, the reader can see where its author is heading. I'm glad this book has finally found print, but I'm sad knowing full well how the life of one of my literary heroes will soon end. Brautigan's final work tells, in journal form, of a man's journey following the hanging death of a friend. In some ways, it's a typical, rambling, fun Brautigan book. At certain points the man shines like he did at his best. It's the Sixties and Seventies all over again. At other points, sadness takes over, as one can see a magnificent talent fading. AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN is a book I'm glad I read, and I would freely recommend it to everyone.Book Review: Overwhelming Sadness--A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
As a novelist with my debut novel in its initial release, I am fascinated by this glimpse of one of my all-time favorite authors nearing the end of his career. Richard Brautigan's suicide nearly two decades ago haunts American literature almost as darkly as Hemingway's does from four decades ago. In AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN, the reader can see where its author is heading. I'm glad this book has finally found print, but I'm sad knowing full well how the life of one of my literary heroes will soon end. Brautigan's final work tells, in journal form, of a man's journey following the hanging death of a friend. In some ways, it's a typical, rambling, fun Brautigan book. At certain points the man shines like he did at his best. It's the Sixties and Seventies all over again. At other points, sadness takes over, as one can see a magnificent talent fading. AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN is a book I'm glad I read, and I would freely recommend it to everyone.Book Review: Brautigan's Last
Summary: 4 Stars
I only recently became familiar with Richard Brautigan's work. His prose style is idiosyncratic, perhaps owing to his background as a poet and the intersection of his career with 1960s and 70s California. His novels (as they are called) are written as a series of one to three-page chapters comprised of episodes, thoughts, or memories seemingly based on Brautigan's own life. The line between autobiography and fiction is sometimes hazy, and the short chapters often (or even usually) seem unrelated. Labeling the books fiction gave Brautigan tremendous freedom. The reader can usually discern fact from fiction, but you never know for certain. The books are hard to describe: part humor, part "hippie," part pathos -- all mixed together.
Reading Brautigan's novels now, three or four decades after they were written, creates a strong sense of nostalgia which, to me, adds a great deal to their appeal. There is often a double dose of nostalgia as the author sometimes refers back to his own childhood.
If you are new to Brautigan, I would not recommend "An Unfortunate Woman" as your first book. That is not to say it is a bad book, but it has a different feel than the others. (If you don't already know, Brautigan completed this book only a couple of years before his suicide in 1984; it was published posthumously many years later.) The concept for this book is quite interesting. He purchased a notebook and began writing in it, never flipping back to read what he'd written earlier. When he filled up the notebook, he called it a finished work. He called this book a "calendar map"; it describes the passage of time and the changing of locations during that particular period of his life. There are breaks of weeks and months where he ceased writing, requiring him to fill in the gaps when he resumed. As with all of his novels, some chapters are more effective than others, but you will encounter more than a few nuggets worth later reflection.
Longtime fans will certainly want to read this book, but I recommend newcomers start with "Trout Fishing in America" or "Revenge of the Lawn," or my personal favorite "So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away."
Book Review: A Gift from Non-Linear Heaven
Summary: 4 Stars
An Unfortunate Woman, by Richard Brautigan, is billed as a novel, but it's really more of a journal, taking shape around the suicide of one woman in Berkeley, and the impending death by cancer of another woman.In the book, Brautigan calls the journey a calendar map, as he travels from his home in Montana to the Bay Area (where he stays in the house where the first woman hanged herself), Chicago, Alaska, Hawaii, Buffalo, and Toronto, then back to his ranch in Montana. Collected along the way are little insights into the people and experiences that make up the journey.
Sometimes seeming to be very little insights, they somehow add up to a larger whole, and a satisfying read. Still, I think you do have to be a Brautigan fan to truly appreciate what the book is. Another thing that it is, is a posthumous release. Although written in 1982, it was not released until 1994 in France (ten years after his death), and July of 2001 in the U.S. (seventeen years A.D.).
The theme of the book, revolving around an unexplained suicide, is made even more poignant by the fact that Brautigan himself committed suicide in 1984. As I understand the story, he was despondent about his career, and had been unable to find a publisher for his latest works (possibly "An Unfortunate Woman" included). His body was found (if my memory serves) by his agent, who was coming to tell him that he'd managed to get him a new book deal.
For anybody who loves the non-linear, non-traditional experience of Brautigan, this will satisfy to a certain degree (although certainly not his best work). If you need a strong plot and a clear direction from page one to page 110, click someplace else on this page and have a nice day.