Revenge of the Lawn, the Abortion, So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away

by Richard Brautigan

Book Overview

A collection of short stories; a story of a librarian and his girlfriend who travel to Tijuana; and a story of a man who recalls his twelfth summer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395706742
• ISBN13: 9780395706749
• Release Date: February 1995
• Publisher: Mariner Books Classics
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

So the Wind ... I fell down laughing!

I remember reading So The Wind Won't Blow it All Away for the first time. I was riding in a greyhound bus with the scent of blue hair ladies in front of me. Brautigan discussed his childhood love of cheesburgers and Superman and I couldn't stop laughing. The bus driver had to pull over and take me off the bus to ask me to shut up. Brautigan is a master of words. His visions are fresh and celebratory. I could read his work over and over. If this is your first Brautigan book you will not be let down. He hasn't written a book that will let you down. This one is no exception. Probably his finest three books in one!

A very well selected collection of an icon's best work

With the possible exception of The Hawkline Monster, Revenge of the Lawn represents Brautigan's best work. It is a collection of wonderfully loopy stories that although they may not focus on developing a specific narrative thrust, instead hone in on capturing a real sense of time, place and experience. Each piece is certaintly idiosyncratic and individualistic only to the unique voice that was the late Brautigan. As a fellow native of the Pacific Northwest, I find his work as collected here sentimental, haunting and vividly descriptive and alive. It is also a fine example of regionalistic literature as his work, while abhereing to the old addage "only the most personal is the most universal", simply couldn't occur in any other region of the world- and that makes it live in all geographical locations. The other stories collected here, may loose some of Revenge of the Lawn's focus, they never the less reflect a sadly overlooked American writer.

Brautigan at his best and sadly, his last.

The concept of the narrator's employment in "Abortion" is incredibly genius, original and truly "BRAUTIGAN": A librarian for a library of self-published authors, books are "checked in" sort of like the Library of Congress, cataloged, documented and shelved, usually forever. But the Narrator reads most of the books. The overall description of these characters from "The Abortion" is that they are all losers, trapped in this life; however, they are all longing and yearning for something more. Most of the "cameo appearances" are writers, looking for an audience and wanting to feel important. There is a sense of unfulfillment, an unanswered desire, and sometimes a burning urge for more MEANING in life in all of Brautigan's work. His atmospheres can be funny, awkward and really just plain sad. So the wind won't blow it all away is the perfect ending to his career. The narrator has matured, become disillusioned about life, our political systems, our country, our promise to ourselves as youths, the passing of an era, and his own inability to MAKE A CHANGE. It is most important when reading Brautigan to realize that this man was probably the living breathing MOLD that all other hippies, yippies, counter culture gurus, flower children, etc were made. Brautigan, "the gentle poet of the young," watched his audience of readers grow up, stop caring, become part of the ESTABLISHMENT, get jobs, make careers, raise families, get haircuts, be responsible, drive station wagons, and put this country on the path to where we are now and oh yes, they quit buying his books as well. He noticed the sadness in all of life, not just his. Brautigan had always recognized this in his writing, but he never called by name...being human.

Brautigan is for writers!

When you get taking yourself much too seriously, either as a writer or as just a human being, pick up anything by Richard Brautigan. He'll delicately shake you from your rigid thinking, point out the delicious ironies of how we all behave. I found great hope when I first picked up these stories - hope that I could tell my stories, too. Brautigan looks straight on at some of the most difficult things, doesn't get his panties in a bunch over form and structure, and makes me laugh out loud in public places, shrug, and go on about life that much lighter!

Richard Brautigan - a rare and strange American treasure...

While people still fight over copies of "The Abortion" in used book stores, some people will be smart enough to buy this latest edition that provides more stories under one binding. While Brautigan provides us with memorable charcters and poetic landscapes, he also has humor and integrity in few words. While the world may wonder at the sad demise of the author, from reading between the lines it is apparent that some authors just "feel things too much". In the tradition of Vonnegut, Richard Brautigan is both ironic and brilliant, political and impertinant, and very, very entertaining