Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster [Paperback]

Richard Brautigan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Delacorte Pr (January 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385287879
• ISBN-13: 978-0385287876
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,620,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quirky and enjoyable collection of poems, August 20, 2002

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (Paperback)

"The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster," by Richard Brautigan, is a collection of poems. Brautigan's style is often surreal, often tender, with touches of witty humor. The poems are written in a clear, straightforward free verse. Here is an example of his style (from "The Chinese Checker Players"): "When I was six years old / I played Chinese checkers / with a woman / who was ninety-three years old."

Recurrent themes in the book include love, sex, loss, and loneliness. Incorporated throughout are an intriguing mix of pop and "high" culture references: Jefferson Airplane, Ophelia, the New York Yankees, John Donne, etc. The book often has an earthy flavor; Brautigan writes about such topics as his own penis or the smell of a fart. Some particularly memorable poems include the following:

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," a science fiction vision of a "cybernetic meadow"; the open-ended "Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4"; "Discovery," a joyful poem about sexual intimacy; the surreal "The Pumpkin Tide"; the funny, haiku-like "November 3"; and "A Good-Talking Candle," which invites the reader into an altered state of perception.

Although most of the poems are very short, there is one longer poem: the 9-part, 9-page "the Galilee Hitch-hiker," which chronicles the surreal adventures of Baudelaire (among other experiences, he opens an unconventional hamburger stand in San Francisco). If you only know Brautigan from his weird and wonderful novels, I recommend you read this remarkable collection of poems.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memories of People's Poet, February 14, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (Paperback)

At a time when the complexities of existence shape even our entertainment, our art, and our literature, it is refreshing to return to the world of Richard Brautigan, (1935 - 1984) a welfare child who reflected on his humble beginnings throughout the 1960s as the people's poet. His novels and his poems deal in beautiful simplicities, spare statements that express the ordinary daily events of life, capturing these moments with words so clear that they leave no opportunity for disagreement. His droll humor is at once amusing, tender, and touching.

This collection of 98 of his poems ranges from very brief `micropoems' to longer extended works. His short poems are simply blinks of a creative eye scanning the world:

In a Café
I watched a man in a cafe fold a slice of bread
as if he were folding a birth certificate or looking
at the photograph of a dead lover.

Man
With his hat on
he's about five inches taller
than a taxicab.

But for many of us who fell in love with his language and observations of the obvious the following poem is one of his very finest;

My Nose Is Growing Old

Yup.
A long lazy September look
in the mirror
say it's true.

I'm 31
and my nose is growing
old.

It starts about 1/2
an inch
below the bridge
and strolls geriatrically
down
for another inch or so:
stopping.

Fortunately, the rest
of the nose is comparatively
young.

I wonder if girls
will want me with an
old nose.

I can hear them now
the heartless bitches!

"He's cute
but his nose
is old."

This is little book is a treasure trove of memories of a simpler time, the work of a man who was the people's voice and whose life ended in the solitude of suicide. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, February 10

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think of all the people lost inside you, April 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (Paperback)

No, this is not The Waste Land, but I've noticed that people who don't even like poems can't help but like this collection, even if they only like the ones with penises in them. Really, Brautigan's poetry is some of the only poetry that doesn't lie to itself, acknowledging both the author's and the medium's weak points, yet still conveying honest insight through endearing prose, with images that fall apart the second you touch them, leaving you with a feeling of naustalgia; this, I think, is the appeal of Brautigan, and while he might not be a master on the terms of Ezra Pound, he is great on his own terms, and for those that don't know (or care) who the hell Ezra Pound is.