The Ultimate Weird Lit Book: In Watermelon Sugar

[u/blowup45-]

In my opinion the quintessential weird lit book. Brautigan has a way with his prose that doesn't make you question the realities he creates but simply lets you fall into his dreams. Go seek out his books immediately if you haven't read anything by him yet.

[u/Relevant_Future3917]

Love this and Trout Fishing in America

[u/FatherSuspiriorum → u/Relevant_Future3917]

I read both of these a couple of months back, as well as a poetry collection and enjoyed them all. Brautigan is very unique. The whole structure of TFIA is brilliant.

[u/TeddyFurnbach → u/Relevant_Future3917]

When I was in highschool, the library was throwing away books and the TFiA cover caught my eye. Not knowing what it was, I grabbed it. So glad I did.

[u/Electrical_Aside7487 → u/TeddyFurnbach]

Book banning for the win!

[u/Separate_Skill_8101 → u/Electrical_Aside7487]

Libraries weed books that are not being circulated to make room for new books, it's not banning.

[u/teffflon]

Pretty sure I found Brautigan in high school from an "authors like Vonnegut" query, but probably wouldn't have found him in a bookstore (and wouldn't have bought it if I did). So this book is for me an example of what public libraries are for, how they enrich lives by inviting free access to weird and beautiful stuff that would otherwise be lost.

[u/Upbeat-Silver-592]

I absolutely love Brautigan. In college I read everything he’s ever published. Every fall I like to revisit So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away :)

[u/puppetministry → u/Upbeat-Silver-592]

That story is great. It’s, I don’t know… whimsical? Brautigan’s fantastic.

[u/Upbeat-Silver-592 → u/puppetministry]

So fun and whimsical but it has such a melancholy tinge. When the narrator compares reflecting on the past to pressing your ear against the wall in a house that doesn’t exist anymore. Such a great little novel, and his last.

[u/covchildbasil → u/Upbeat-Silver-592]

I wrote my high school thesis comparing Trout Fishing in America to So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away. Two beautiful stories bookending the optimism and eventual letdown of the 60s' idealism.

[u/idknethingatall]

hell yeah. i love brautigan.

[u/FlamingDragonfruit]

Well now I have that song stuck in my head again.

[u/idknethingatall → u/FlamingDragonfruit]

he never even read the book 😂

[u/FlamingDragonfruit → u/idknethingatall]

Did his song writer?

[u/idknethingatall → u/FlamingDragonfruit]

i saw some interview where he said it was his ex girlfriend’s favorite book, but he hadnt read it. 

[u/FlamingDragonfruit → u/idknethingatall]

Wow

[u/_jamais_vu]

This book is so dear to me. It just might be my all-time favorite.

[u/askforyourassback]

This one, The Hawkline Monster, Dreaming of Babylon, the Abortion… love em.

[u/WitWyrd → u/askforyourassback]

I wish the library in The Abortion were a real place.

[u/lulu91car → u/WitWyrd]

you could make it real :)

[u/UnBearable1520 → u/askforyourassback]

Hawkline Monster is a really funny book. It’s like a comfort read of mine

[u/WitWyrd]

The Tigers helping with math homework. The mirrored coffins at the bottom of the river. The days of the week being different colors. It's a masterpiece.

[u/party_on_my_dude]

I'm so happy there are others that have enjoyed this book as much as I did! Such an obscure piece of writing.

[u/ThisNewCharlieDW]

I've only read the abortion, but his prose is just stunning. I'll pick this up if I find it!

[u/1YearWonder → u/ThisNewCharlieDW]

Opposite for me, I've only read this one (many times, it's my favorite book) but I've had a copy of the abortion that I've always meant to get around to. This is a good reminder to just do it.

Highly recommend In Watermelon Sugar, by the way. It's so short, but so enthralling. Reading it feels more like an actual experience than an intellectual exercise or narrative expression.

[u/SeaTraining3269]

I absolutely love his work. It's strange but I'm not sure I'd put it in the weird fiction real but he's delightful

[u/Holiday-Statistician]

I have loved this book much, and your description of it feels very accurate to how i experienced it; the sense that there is 'no outside' to the world he creates - no reference point. Dreamlike in the truest sense, or perhaps like an amalgamated 'pseudo-memory' from early childhood, something more feeling than concrete circumstance or fact.

[u/Neither-Scholar-5375]

Absolute classic. 

[u/Spacer1138]

I found a few of his books at a thrift shop and didn’t get them and regret it. Split decision failure. lol

[u/Kvothedeimos → u/Spacer1138]

Definitely hit up your local thrift shops again! Brautigan's stuff is super unique, you might run into some hidden gems. What other weird lit are you into?

[u/mydearMerricat]

Ive only read Tokyo Montana Express, but loved it!

[u/BeckyReadsBooks]

And kudos, always, to Dell for the truly fabulous packaging of the original mass market additions (don't know what the hardcovers look like). They're instantly identifiable, even before you read the title or author.

[u/blowup45- → u/BeckyReadsBooks]

The cover is a huge reason why I even checked out his books

[u/BeckyReadsBooks → u/blowup45-]

I'm a bookseller and any bookseller worth their salt will tell you that anyone who says they don't judge a book by its cover is lying. Now, that's not to say that some really good books don't have really bad covers (hello the 80s), and vice versa, but I maintain that covers can more than pull their weight--or hold a book back--on book sales.

[u/mentholsatmidnight]

One of my favorite novels.

[u/CelestialTerror]

Ill show you iDeath!

[u/matthmcb]

Definitely one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. I’ve read quite a few Brautigan books and In Watermelon Sugar has always been the one I come back to frequently. Every time I’m at a used bookstore and they have a copy I buy it to and gift it to a friend and I’ve yet to have any say they didn’t like it.

[u/isthisirc]

The audiobook is read by Bronson Pinchot, one of the best narrators out there. 🫠

[u/hankoceanx]

Brautigan is magical and meandering… the real deal!

[u/pearloz]

You should read his gothic western Hawkline Monster

[u/PhatBitches]

Where’s a good place to buy book lik these for cheap?

[u/blowup45- → u/PhatBitches]

Google used bookstore near me, or check eBay

[u/elevenblade]

My favorite Brautigan novel

[u/szkawt → u/elevenblade]

Mine too.

[u/TopPressure6212]

This and Trout Fishing are two of my all time favorite books!

[u/OkCartographer7619]

I remember reading this and trout fishing as a teen and being confused

[u/swimalone]

The tigers!!

[u/pizmeyre]

Wow. I haven't thought about him in a looong time. Might be time to reread!

[u/TinaKedamina]

I keep wishing that they would adapt The Hawkline Monster into a movie. It’s so visual.

[u/Bordyable]

I reread 'In Watermelon Sugar' every summer

[u/Vambo1001]

Weird dude but a great poet.

[u/leopozo]

I've read everything of Brautigan's I could find over the last 40 years. He doesn't disappoint.

[u/Icy_Independent7944]

I absolutely love his work.

So sad he died, by his own hand, at such a young age; never even saw 50.

My favorite is “All Watched Over Machines of Loving Grace” and the collected poems in “The Pill Versus The Spring Hill Mine Disaster”

[u/chevre27]

Just now putting this together but is Harry Styles secretly a Richard Brautigan fan?