Dreaming of Babylon [Paperback]

Richard Brautigan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1978

You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Nobody's left but C. Card. When you hire C. Card, you have scraped the bottom of the private eye barrel. The fast, funny, slam-bang adventures of seedy, not-too-bright C. Card are a delight to both the mind and the heart. The book was originally published in 1977.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Brautigan's comic genius and countercultural vision of American life made him a literary idol of the 1960s and 1970s. His books became required reading for the beat generation, and Trout Fishing in America sold more than two million copies throughout the world. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Delacorte Pr (October 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385282214
• ISBN-13: 978-0385282215
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,378,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Brautigan touch and the private eye novel, February 3, 2004

By 

LGwriter "SharpWitGuy" (Astoria, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel, 1942 (Hardcover)

Ya gotta know by now that nobody writes like Richard Brautigan. He's a force unto himself and sorely missed. In Dreaming of Babylon, 1977, he's gotta 40s gumshoe, C. Card, who's so broke he has to borrow a friend's gun 'cause he can't afford his own. But the gun has no bullets so he has to find them somewhere as well. What a guy.

The title refers to C's tendency to picture himself in a land of imagination that takes him far away from the everyday world into a place that rewards him with a beauteous dame (natch) and all kinds of pleasures and stuff. With chapter titles like "Mustard", "A Babylonian Sand Watch", and "Barcelona", it's not hard to tell C. loves fantasizing a lot, as well as moving back and forth between that and the nitty gritty stuff of life.

Of course every chapter is 2 or 3 pages; the largest is 6. Here's a great little excerpt: "'You've broken your mother's heart', she'd always say then and I'd answer, 'Don't say that, Mom, just because I'm a private detective. I still love you.'"

C. has to solve a murder (of course; otherwise this wouldn't be a private eye novel) and the things that happen to him are funny and ridiculous and strange and tense and just plain dumb sometimes. But that's life, ain't it? He goes about his business like a goofball sometimes and sometimes he actually has enough smarts to put two and two together--when he's not off in Babylon somewhere....

You don't read Brautigan for a linear plot and non-whimsical writing. You don't read him if you want characters who take themselves seriously embedded in worlds of text whose author also takes himself seriously. You read Brautigan 'cause you know he's gotta sense of humor nobody else ever did, does, or will have. You read him 'cause he's a guy whose heart is a whole lot bigger than a breadbox and who thinks with it really well. You read him because he knows how to tell a story that makes you laugh and sigh a little and maybe understand a little better how to be in this world.

Read him.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming of Babylon...sadness, futility, and dreamscapes, October 30, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel, 1942 (Hardcover)

Brautigan's "Dreaming of Babylon" chronicles the dreamscape of a down-on-his-luck private eye. Drawing in seedy tones, he explores the inner dreamscape of the character. The escapism of the protagonist, as well as the hopelessness, mirror those Brautigan felt in this stage of his career. The inventive turns of phrase and wry humour are there, but an underlying sadness permeates the plot; the outcome, failures, and cramped, small dreams are known from the beginning. The protagonist is a stand-in for Brautigan, much as in "Sombrero Fallout" and other later works. As one who owns all his fiction, I think of this as one of the sadder books. Andy Reeves

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming: The power of the Detective's Mind, January 31, 2001

By 

JON WINGENT (Alsager Campus, MMU, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel, 1942 (Hardcover)

A powerful insight into the mind of a down-and-out detective. The novel captures the essence of dreamscape and proves to be a most admirable read. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the detective novel genre.