Mariner Trout Fishing in America

Classic San Francisco book.

Good book, excellent edition

Write your review here [Required]. Actually it ain't Trout Fishing, it's a three in one of Trout Fishing, another book about iDeath (tell that to Steve Jobs) and a poetry collection. All good.

The book arrived promptly and in perfect condition. As I ordered it for a gift, I did not read it myself. Thank you.

The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster I enjoyed reading this series of poems very much I have not read much poetry in the past. I spent a lifetime in engineering reading technical documents and non-fiction. However, in retirement, I have engaged on a project to read the literature which so many instructors tried to teach me in school. Brautigan was one of the authors taught to me in first year college. I suppose that the instructor saw Brautigan’s work as relevant to those of us who were young 40 and 50 years ago. I know I enjoyed the class. With my retirement project, I have found that there are many ways to write history than I had realized . Non-fiction is but one of them but there are many other ways to gain insight into human society and personal human psychology. Engineering is about creating things that are useful and that means having an understanding of human needs and wants. There are many ways to gain such an understanding. Poetry like this is one of those ways. The poem that most affected me in the collection was: “A Good-Talking Candle”—“I had a good-talking candle last night in my bedroom./ I was very tired but I wanted somebody to be with me, so I lit a candle/ and listened to its comfortable light until I was asleep.” There are a number of these very short poems in the collection. It is with these that, in my opinion, Brautigan is most effective. They are short one or two line lyrics or short stories. They do capture personal emotion. I found the longer poems to be uneven. Some like “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” are very effective. Others, however, have obscure and rather precious imagery In Watermelon Sugar “In Watermelon Sugar” is a book that is written very simply. It is not a trivial book. It is quite a profound book. It is a book that was of its time. The time was of the 1960s and the 1970s. This was the era of Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. It was the time when gentleness was the ideal. “In Watermelon Sugar” describes a community that is permeated by that gentleness. iDeath could be regarded as the ideal commune in which people spontaneously cooperate to the benefit of the whole. However, within it are attributes that belie its gentle nature. Just as within the 60s and 70s were the attributes of self-indulgence and irresponsibility that led to the end of the hippie experiment and the rise of the Me generation. The culture of iDeath lacks a true sense of community. There is no real caring for others just a sense of self and a community that cannot accept the otherne4ss of Margaret. The lack of community in iDeath bred the nihilism of InBoil. It also led to the social rejection and ostracism of Margaret. Margaret’s rejection led to her suicide which was, in turn, met with indifference. There is no sense of loss, regret or remorse in her death. There is no responsibility. There is only a sense of “Me”. --------------------------------------- “Trout Fishing in America”; This for me is a book full of memories. In my retirement, I am following a project to revisit the books that people tried to use to teach me the world of literature. I didn’t understand then over 50 years ago, but I think that that that lifetime may have prepared me for what they were trying to teach. I remember “Trout Fishing in America” from the excerpts provided to us in that first year English literature course at Saint Lawrence in the fall term of 1970. It was only three years in publication then. It meant something to me then and it means something to me now. There is no anger in this book. There is no hate, no evil. It has aspects of “On the Road” as a beat exploration of America and in the late 60s as a rendition of the hippie ideal. There is truth in this book and that truth is something that seems to have been lost of the 50 years since its publication. I spent those 50 years studying and working in high tech. It was nice to read the books account of a pre-tech San Francisco and read about San Jose, Sunnyvale and the rest without the tech domination. Tech has brought some major social changes. Tech has enabled the individual and its social technology has enabled its opposite in factionalism and echo chambers. “Trout Fishing in America” seems to have come from a different time which had different ideals. It is just a book in which people meet each other without suspicion and envy. I remember this book. I enjoyed the excerpts in class but didn’t have the insight to accept the book for what it was when I tried to read it. I was looking for the big idea and missed it the first time I read it. Just be nice to each other.