Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan [Hardcover]

Keith Abbott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1989

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. In DOWNSTREAM FROM TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA: A MEMOIR OF RICHARD BRAUTIGAN, Keith Abbott paints a portrait of Richard Brautigan as a lovable and whimsical friend. Abbott explains the writer's dedication to the art of fiction and his quest to break beyond the pop culture, hippie label that haunted him until his suicide in1984. Brautigan's tight prose inspired authors such as Haruki Murakami, and his experimentation with the line won him accolades from authors like Ishmael Reed, Raymond Carver, and Michael McClure. His work is highly influential and Abbott draws a clear connection between Brautigan's life and his writing. This book is essential for anyone who is interested in the work of Richard Brautigan. Raymond Carver writes, "Truly the best thing I've ever seen written of the man."

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brautigan "looked like a cross between Mark Twain and a heron," in Abbott's strikingly apt phrase, yet this empathic memoir is for the birds. The poet-novelist, best remembered for his semi-surreal fictional whimsies ( Trout Fishing in America ; In Watermelon Sugar , etc.) was found dead in his house in Bolinas, Calif. in 1984. Abbott, who knew him for 18 years, traces Brautigan's slow descent into alcoholism and paranoia. There are revelations about his two failed marriages, sordid antics like watching porno flicks at Christmas and blasting his kitchen wall with gunshot, his childhood of poverty and neglect (his mother abandoned him several times, stepfathers abused him). Abbott is insightful and sympathetic, but the problem is that it's hard to make a perpetual adolescent hold one's interest for 180 pages. He portrays his one-time buddy as a tragic figure trapped inside an "ahistorical imagination." Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Keith Kumasen Abbott teaches writing and art at Naropa University. Publications include the novels Gush, Rhino Ritz, and Modeai of Monterey; the short story collections, Harum Scarum, THE FIRST THING COMING, and The French Girl. His work has been translated into five languages and recently his novel Racer was short-listed for the Berlinale Film Conference 2007. His poems appeared in the anthologies Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull 2006) and Rimbaud Apres Rimbaud (Except Collection Textual 2004). His art/calligraphy appear in shows in San Francisco, Denver, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, and San Antonio. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 174 pages
• Publisher: Capra Pr; First Edition edition (March 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0884962938
• ISBN-13: 978-0884962939
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,963,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Memoir of Neo-Beat Author Richard Brautigan, November 13, 1997

By 

Allan J. Cronin "francis gerard" (Alameda, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan (Hardcover)

Keith Abbott was a friend and, as much as anyone could be, a confidant of the late neo-beat author, Richard Brautigan. This is one of surprisingly few biographical and/or critical works on this unique American writer. Lately there seems to be a mini-renaissance of interest in Brautigan's work. Internet sites, notably Jen Leibhart's, " The Brautigan Pages" will provide the interested surfer with contacts of other aficionados. This writer has received e-mail from Finland and Germany where Brautigan's work is becoming known (again?). I know of only two other works dedicated exclusively tothis author, Terence Malley's "Richard Brautigan", a 1972 publication in Warner's "Writers for the Seventies" series and Marc Chenetier's 1983 more inclusive "Richard Brautigan". The Abbott book is far more personal and, for thiswriter, more interesting. It is the only work that makes a serious effort at a biographical approach to this enigmatic writer. It may be some time before Brautigan's significance as a man of letters can be agreed upon but the recent resurgence of interest suggests that he will not fall into obscurity. By the way you can e-mail Jen Leibhart at [e-mail]. So until some enterprising writer attempts a true literary biography Keith Abbott's book will fill this unjust gap in American letters.