Customer Reviews

The Tokyo-Montana Express

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Back when I was a teenager, I journeyed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan in the "Hikawa Maru". That passenger ship was the only one of the fleet to survive World War II. It was wall-to-wall rivets, a kind of Milky Way of rivets. The morning when the ship arrived in Yokohama harbor, I saw Mt. Fuji towering up into the sky. Everything smelled new. Just like Columbus, I'd sailed across the ocean and discovered America, only my America was Japan. Some years later, after I'd learned Japanese and become a kabuki fan, I married a woman from India. With another Indian lady, who studied Physics, we once drove right across Montana, from west to east. It was a long drive. I didn't like the metal crosses standing beside the roads. They showed me that people in Montana drove a little too wildly. Besides, being Jewish, I didn't want to end up as a cross on a lonesome road in Montana. But once, as we sped along at 70 mph or so on a deserted stretch, a carful of Indian teenagers suddenly careened across the highway right in front of us and curved into the other lane. I missed them by inches. In the split-second it took, I looked into the eyes of the kid at the wheel. He was scared ****less, out of control. There could have been a disaster of Indians there; a close encounter of the worst kind. Jews, Hindus, and Native Americans, all on one big cross with many little branches, like a kind of ghastly menorah. We all survived to have our lives. That's my Tokyo-Montana express story.

There are countless little gems in this volume of Brautigan's work. There's a 50 word story called "Cold Kingdom Enterprise" about a knight who had 50 words to live in. There are stories from Japan, Montana, California, Arizona, Texas, and even Beirut. I figure "Another Texas Ghost Story" has to be one of the great American short stories. Brautigan buys humidifiers, returns burned out light bulbs that didn't make his barn look like Times Square, scorns high-falutin' popcorn labels, catches fish, and admires Japanese women. Tales of looking for a $3 tire chain in the snow, tales of a dead Canadian airman's former girlfriend. He wonders why his friend is always home to answer the phone. He can write a story on "werewolf raspberries"---something few authors have attempted. Every time his sad humor gets to you, his wit and his remarkable imagination touch you like almost no other writer I know. What can I say ? Though in this volume he was already growing tired and a few stories may not be up to the usual standard, you can still enjoy vintage Brautigan in THE TOKYO-MONTANA EXPRESS. If you're a fan, you can't afford to miss this one. If you never read him---nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.

one of my most treasured books. If you are a Brautigan fan you must have this book.It is funny and insightful short stories and one pagers.It is timeless the way Brautigans eyes saw his world around him and how unique his visions were.

If I ever were, in fact, stranded on a desert Island, I could be content if I had in my possesion the following four, ok, maybe five items:

1. A copy of Dr. Seuss's, "Green Eggs and Ham."

2 & 3. Tom Waits, "Nighthawks at the Diner" Nighthawks at the Diner (my LP copy, along with my wind up Victrola).

4. Coffee/Ciggarettes (counts as one item).

5. A copy of Richard Brautigan's collection of very short stories, "The Tokyo-Montana Express".

Anyone, who can pen a five sentance short story about a drowned Japanese boy that leaves you so completely shattered at the end, must have been genius. This is truly essential reading.

Whether you like the book or not, it's a wonderful study in the transference of weight through the sparest of prose. If you love the book, it's one you can visit again and again; a revelation every time.

Some of his later works have been slammed by the media in the past, but for me, I loved this book! There is no one who can write like Mr.Brautigan. He can take the most simple things, and turn them into such witty, and touching tales. His imagination knows no bounds. I keep this book at hand for whenever I want a quick pick-me-up, and or, insight.

I couldn't recommend it more.