Trout Fishing in America
- Jan 6, 2019
- 1 min read
★★☆☆☆
Pardon my French, but what is this shit? Largely written during a family camping trip in southern Idaho during the summer of 1961 (which, if I’d ever been to Idaho, might explain everything) but not published until 1967, Trout Fishing in America—for reasons completely inexplicable to me—launched Richard Brautigan to international fame. I guess to “get” this nonsensical series of anecdotes about a book called Trout Fishing in America, someone named Trout Fishing in America, someone else named Trout Fishing in America Shorty, a hotel named Trout Fishing in America, or actually fishing for trout in America, you had to be there (preferably with joint in hand) at the dawn of the counter-cultural revolution. Don’t get me wrong, there’s humor, imagination, and even a little insight into the human condition to be found and enjoyed herein, but at about the halfway point the incessant silliness just turned into tedium. Maybe your tolerance differs from mine, but there’s only so much trout this man can take.
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