Richard Brautigan : A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and the Hawkline Monster (Three Books in the Manner of Their Original ed) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHEN I FIRST HEARD about Big Sur I didn't know that it was a member of the Confederate States of America..." (more)
Key Phrases: shadow robots, giant butler, rich queer, Lee Mellon, Miss Hawkline, Magic Child (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Richard Brautigan was the author of ten novels, including a contemporary classic, Trout Fishing in America, nine volumes of poetry, and a collection of stories.Here are three Brautigan novels--A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon and The Hawkline Monster--reissues in a one-volume omnibus edition.

About the Author

Richard Brautigan (1935-1984) was a god of the counterculture and the author of ten novels, nine volumes of poetry, and a collection of short stories.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Later printing edition (February 4, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395547032
• ISBN-13: 978-0395547038
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #179,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous trio of novels, June 21, 2002

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and The Hawkline Monster" is a collection of three separate novels by Richard Brautigan. The three books are bound together in one volume with separate pagination. Together they demonstrate Brautigan to be a witty, wacky, and altogether remarkable writer.

I actually found "Confederate General" to be the weakest of the three. This novel follows the misadventures of the impoverished narrator and his friend in California. It's a story, told with absurdist and satiric flourishes, of people on the fringes of society. I especially liked the narrator's unique approach to the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.

"Dreaming of Babylon" is a hilarious and delightful spoof of a hard-boiled detective novel. Brautigan's anti-hero, C. Card, is a poor, not-too-intelligent private eye working in San Francisco in 1942. Early in the book we learn that he is too poor to even afford bullets for his gun, and is hounded for rent by his landlady. His escape from this harried existence is an anachronistic fantasy life in ancient Babylon. This is a really fun book that effectively satirizes various popular entertainment genres. And despite being a lowlife, Card is a curiously appealing narrator.

The third novel, "The Hawkline Monster," is a remarkable blend of horror, science fiction, western, and absurdist comedy. Taking place mainly in Oregon in 1902, the book follows the adventure of two assassins who are hired to kill the monster of the title. The book is full of quirky characters and bizarre situations. Brautigan creates genuine suspense, and his prose at its best is vivid and crisply poetic.

Brautigan's work in this trio of novels reminds me at times of the writings of Charles Bukowski and Kurt Vonnegut. But despite certain similarities to these two, I believe that Brautigan is a unique voice, and his work is a wonderful addition to the tradition of American fiction.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three of Richard's Best, April 22, 1999

By A Customer

When I first read Hawkline Monster, the first Brautigan novel I came across, I was taken aback. I'd never read anything as interesting as this tale of two professional killers hired to kill a supposed monster. I became a fan. Confederate General, however, became my favorite. Brautigan takes his readers into another world--goes beyond simple experience in chapters like Lee Melon performing his rights of tobacco at Big Sur. With Dreaming of Babylon--a unique mystery--this is one of the best Brautigan collections around.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not his best, August 30, 2004

By	J. Bosiljevac (san fran, ca) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I was reading stuff on the Internet about Brautigan and someone said that if you like his stuff, you'll have to read everything you can get your hands on. That's me. There's three collections of his that have been released, each one with three books in it. Of those three collections, this is my least favorite.

CONFEDERATE GENERAL, is about two couples, including the narrator and Lee Mellon, a Confederate General who lost his shoes. The book is mostly about them drinking and getting high in a strange house in the middle of nowhere. The surreal house has glass walls and a pond where they keep frogs and alligators. They also have problems with people chopping down their trees. A strange man Lee Mellon once knew visits them. He is crazy. The story has six endings.

DREAMING OF BABYLON is the strangest P.I. novel you will ever read. Likewise, THE HAWKLINE MONSTER is a western, only in the loosest sense of the term. Even if you like Brautigan's writing (which apparently is pretty polarizing), it's hard to guess what anyone will make of these stories. I thought they were pretty cool, and unlike anything else ever, which is a good thing.