Brautigan, Richard (Vol. 5) - Brautigan, Richard 1933–
Brautigan, Richard 1933–
Brautigan, an American poet and novelist of the counter-culture, writes witty, fanciful, parabolic fiction. His best known work is Trout Fishing in America. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 53-56.)
All of Brautigan's techniques [in In Watermelon Sugar]—repetition, juxtaposition, fragmentation of time and setting, use of strange lyricism and elements from fantasy and science fiction—come to us through the point of view of the nameless narrator and gradually accumulate toward characterization for negative effect. We obtain the final clue to Brautigan's intention for the novel as a whole when we come to the society's one claim to pure pleasure: communal pride. The narrator repeatedly tells us that he and the others like living in watermelon sugar, that it does suit them; or, in a more defiant vein, "there must be worse lives"…. Indeed not. The "delicate balance in iDEATH"… is the delusion that...
[The entire page is 5530 words long]
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