The revenge of the lawn

Hey guys,

 Here is recommandation about a great book, by a great writer with a great name (joke): 

        «  Revenge of the lawn » 

by  Richard Brautigan.

I've read Revenge of the lawn this summer, and I really liked it. It's a book I have had on my book shelf since forever and I decided to take it to Spain with me (first step to actually reading a book).

They are extremely short stories. The shortness of some short stories can be strange at first, but is makes the author's point even more striking. They often describe a small moment of everyday life, like “Coffee” or “One afternoon in 1939” , but can also refer to a more vague topic like, for instance “ Holidays In Germany” or “ Ernest Hemingway's Typist” . As the short stories are often very short, they could be almost seen like poems in prose, due to the form, but also because of the poetry and sensibility they convey. Moreover, they often have a recurrent sentence or motif, that can recall poetry. The short story that has a clear link with poetry “ Getting to know each other” is very representative of this poetic aspect that can be found in the short stories. Indeed, the obvious references to Shakespeare “She smiled an closed the door”, makes the reader think of poetry. The end is written in verses, and the way Richard Brautigan plays with the same sentences and themes in a novel that is two pages long creates a felling of intimacy that is linked with the tittle of the novel. He manages to create a part of mystery due to the shortness of his short stories but also to the almost quasi absence of names for his characters, but at the same time, the reader is confronted to the intimacy of theses unknown characters.

              I liked the way every short story left something in me, and touched me in some way without any expectation . Indeed, when I read a long book, I expect to be touched and moved by the characters and theirs actions because I know about them ect.. Here, it's the universal aspect of the short stories that makes all these moment relatable for the reader. The way the characters are very quickly described, the absence of name, and the way he often addresses to the reader (“Women when they put their clothes on in the morning”) makes the short stories closer to the reader.

       I liked a lot “ I was trying to describe you to someone” that to me is very representative of Richard Brautigan's writing style and I would say it's one of my favourites because of how he manages to describe the difficulty to describe someone you love and how the narrator ends up telling the story of a movie that is not very related to that person and still, we understand what he means. I found very touching this short story and it represents well what I liked in the rest of the book, the way he gets to the reader with precise description as well as vague and universal feelings.

           I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to read and that forgotten that reading is something that can cheer up. There is also a sense of humour, and irony in some short stories that adds to the lightness of the book. I found all these short story very touching, and I'm keeping this book as I keep my poems, to read again some of my favourites when I feel bad or I need to escape for five minutes. To me, each short story is a small, sensitive and moving escape.

Tell me if you knew Richard Brautigan, and if not I can lend the book ! 

Al