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John Marchall's review of 'An Unfortunate Woman' and 'You Can's Catch Death'
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New on the Bookshelves for Brautigan Fans: A Review of An Unfortunate Woman and You Can't Catch Death

by John Marshall?

Richard Brautigan was the writer who captured the tangerine dream flavor of the 1960s better than almost anyone. The Tacoma native, who grew up in Washington and Oregon, had a remarkable flair for language and image in such pop classics as Trout Fishing in America (3 million copies in print).

But Brautigan's life was bedeviled by alcoholism, and he committed suicide in 1984. In the subsequent years, Seattle and the Northwest have remained the prime market for his wonderfully idiosyncratic novels.

Now comes his daughter, Ianthe, with a new memoir of her father's troubled life, You Can't Catch Death (St. Martin's Press), which she will support with readings next week at the University Book Store and The Elliott Bay Book Co. The daughter, who was 24 when her father died, has produced an episodic, quirky work that recalls her father's approach.

The memoir comes at the same time as the welcome publication of Richard Brautigan's last work, An Unfortunate Woman (St. Martin's Press). This slim novel, much about death, takes the form of a traveler's journey and is pure Brautigan.

Brautigan's many fans include writer Tom Robbins of La Conner, who said recently, "I do think more people should know about him, absolutely. I think Trout Fishing in America is one of the most important post-modernist works of fiction. There's never been a novel like it for a long, long time."


Seattle Post-Intelligencer
May 12, 2000
Online Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/book12.shtml(external link)



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