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jazzy_daveRichard Brautigan "Revenge Of The Lawn" (Canongate)
"The lion as usual took it quite stoically. Having been buried at least fifty times during the last two years, the lion had gotten used to being buried in the back yard.
I remember the first time they buried him. He didn't know what was happening. He was a younger lion, then, and was frightened and confused, but now he knew what was happening because he was an older lion and had been buried so many times.
He looked vaguely bored as they folded his front paws across his chest and started throwing dirt in his face."
The only other book I have read by this Beat-era author is "A Confederate General from Big Sur", but I put a few of his others on my wish list, and eventually bought this one because of the title.
This collection of 62 short stories written between 1962 and 1970, is only 146 pages long. Some of the stories are autobiographical, about playing at shooting down enemy planes as a child during the war, hunting and fishing in the Pacific Northwest as a teenager, and life in San Francisco where he lived as an adult. Others are more fantastical, like the wonderful "A Need for Gardens", an unlikely story about some men burying a lion in their back yard. The very short stories mean that there's a surprise on every page.
A patchy collection, but the high notes are exquisite, so much so that this sits amongst my favourite reads of all time. The short story suits Brautigan's style, and when he waxes surreal it's a delirious delight.
"The lion as usual took it quite stoically. Having been buried at least fifty times during the last two years, the lion had gotten used to being buried in the back yard.
I remember the first time they buried him. He didn't know what was happening. He was a younger lion, then, and was frightened and confused, but now he knew what was happening because he was an older lion and had been buried so many times.
He looked vaguely bored as they folded his front paws across his chest and started throwing dirt in his face."
The only other book I have read by this Beat-era author is "A Confederate General from Big Sur", but I put a few of his others on my wish list, and eventually bought this one because of the title.
This collection of 62 short stories written between 1962 and 1970, is only 146 pages long. Some of the stories are autobiographical, about playing at shooting down enemy planes as a child during the war, hunting and fishing in the Pacific Northwest as a teenager, and life in San Francisco where he lived as an adult. Others are more fantastical, like the wonderful "A Need for Gardens", an unlikely story about some men burying a lion in their back yard. The very short stories mean that there's a surprise on every page.
A patchy collection, but the high notes are exquisite, so much so that this sits amongst my favourite reads of all time. The short story suits Brautigan's style, and when he waxes surreal it's a delirious delight.
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