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The Tokyo-Montana Express
The stations along the route of the Tokyo-Montana Express--a grand train of exciting speed and unusual itinerary--tell its story and their own, some with confidence, some with uncertainty
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
74 people are currently reading
2050 people want to read
About the author
Richard Brautigan
180 books2,179 followersRichard Brautigan was an American novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Born in Tacoma, Washington, he moved to San Francisco in the 1950s and began publishing poetry in 1957. He started writing novels in 1961 and is probably best known for his early work Trout Fishing in America. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1984.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
December 15, 2025
Whatever Richard Brautigan wrote, it turned out to be poetical.
What is the best way to get from America to Japan? Board The Tokyo-Montana Express and then you will find out.
Although I enjoyed all Richard Brautigan’s books that I've read, this fantastic trip seems to be my favourite.
Everyone should find one’s place in the sun and play one’s own unique role in history.
So it is with our lives – we have grandiose expectations, we dream of grandeur, we wait for a grand cloudburst of fame but all ends up just in the two wee teardrops of rain.
What is the best way to get from America to Japan? Board The Tokyo-Montana Express and then you will find out.
Although I enjoyed all Richard Brautigan’s books that I've read, this fantastic trip seems to be my favourite.
A train is travelling from Cairo to Alexandria. It is a blue sky, white cloud day in Egypt. I am watching the train on television here in California, a long way from the Middle East.
Why do Egyptian clouds catch my attention as I look at the train? These are the first clouds I remember seeing in weeks or maybe months. I just haven’t been paying attention. When did I stop?
The train is carrying the President of the United States Jimmy Carter and the President of Egypt Anwar Sadat. They are trying to find peace between Egypt and Israel. It’s somewhere out there in the desert. While they are doing this, I am watching clouds and trying to figure out what they mean to my life.
We all have our roles in history.
Mine is clouds.
Everyone should find one’s place in the sun and play one’s own unique role in history.
The smallest snowstorm on record took place an hour ago in my back yard. It was approximately two flakes. I waited for more to fall, but that was it. The entire storm was just two flakes.
So it is with our lives – we have grandiose expectations, we dream of grandeur, we wait for a grand cloudburst of fame but all ends up just in the two wee teardrops of rain.
May 7, 2020
This is the fourth Richard Brautigan book I’ve read and it’s probably my least favourite so far. In structure this reminds me a lot of “Trout Fishing in America”. There are the same short segments, of anything between half a page and 5-6 pages, and there are the same more or less random musings on life. The two books were however written about 20 years apart and it shows. Many of the stations on The Tokyo-Montana Express have a very downbeat feel to them, and the book has a generally despondent air that I didn’t get from “Trout Fishing…” Brautigan ruminates a lot on death and on his lost youth. In one section he observes a shabbily dressed man handing out advertising handbills to passers-by on a street. Most of the passers-by glance once at the handbills before scrunching them up and putting them into the first bin they see. Brautigan wonders whether this scene is analogous to his own life as a writer. Many of the sections refer to suicides or other deaths that he is told about or that he reads about in newspapers. Of course the reader of today knows that Brautigan himself committed suicide in 1984, just a few years after the publication of this book. Reading this collection, it’s easy to imagine that his thoughts were already turning in that direction.
The book does have its moments. There are enough flashes of the old Brautigan for me to (just about) rate it at 3 stars.
Perhaps I’m now too old and jaded for a book like this, just like Brautigan himself when he wrote it.
The book does have its moments. There are enough flashes of the old Brautigan for me to (just about) rate it at 3 stars.
Perhaps I’m now too old and jaded for a book like this, just like Brautigan himself when he wrote it.
June 3, 2018
نمدونم مشکل از ترجمه بود یا ویراستاری. اما یه جاهایی حس خوب کار رو ازم میگرفت. بهخصوص دو سه تا غلط خیلی ضایع داشت! یکی از بخشهاش هم نصفه بود! نمدونم توی چاپهای بعدی رفع شده اینا یا نه. بااینحال حس بعضی از قسمتهاش اینقدر خوب بود که کتاب رو میبستم و دیگه نمیخوندمش تا هی توی ذهنم دورهش کنم. مثل اون قسمتی که میگه توی یکی از شهرهای ژاپن بهار که میشه همهجا بوی شکوفۀ پرتقال میآد. حتی بچههایی که تازه بهدنیا میآن. حسها و اتفاقاش توی بعضی قسمتها عالی بودن.
January 22, 2023
My expectations were high when I started reading this book. It’s a collection of short pieces, similar to his earlier work, Revenge of the Lawn. That book is an absolute favorite of mine - a collection of small gems that read like prose poetry with a distinctly Baudelairian feel. That’s what I was looking for, and what I did not find in The Tokyo-Montana Express.
The problem is not that there isn’t any Brautigan gold in these pages. There are flashes of his humor, an actual abundance of his pathos (this, overall, is a much darker work than Revenge of the Lawn) and an occasional perfect Brautigan sentence or phrase, such as:
Howl like a toothless vampire in the endless garlic mirrors of eternity
or:
She can feel the power of her body’s religion by watching prayers in the eyes of men.
The problem is not that there isn’t any gold, but that there is far too much dross. Many of these pieces seem flat and pointless, completely lacking the familiar Brautigan magic. For the first time ever while reading a Brautigan book I found myself just wanting to get it over with and temped to skim. Then I’d come to a piece that reminded me of why I love his writing, which would keep me reading through the next three to five meh pieces before I found another one that was worthy.
If you are not familiar with Brautigan, don’t read this book. Read Revenge of the Lawn, or Trout Fishing In America, or literally almost any other of his books first. If you already love Brautigan, you’ll definitely want to read it to mine the limited magic that is here. Just know to come to it with the sails of your expectations trimmed.
The problem is not that there isn’t any Brautigan gold in these pages. There are flashes of his humor, an actual abundance of his pathos (this, overall, is a much darker work than Revenge of the Lawn) and an occasional perfect Brautigan sentence or phrase, such as:
Howl like a toothless vampire in the endless garlic mirrors of eternity
or:
She can feel the power of her body’s religion by watching prayers in the eyes of men.
The problem is not that there isn’t any gold, but that there is far too much dross. Many of these pieces seem flat and pointless, completely lacking the familiar Brautigan magic. For the first time ever while reading a Brautigan book I found myself just wanting to get it over with and temped to skim. Then I’d come to a piece that reminded me of why I love his writing, which would keep me reading through the next three to five meh pieces before I found another one that was worthy.
If you are not familiar with Brautigan, don’t read this book. Read Revenge of the Lawn, or Trout Fishing In America, or literally almost any other of his books first. If you already love Brautigan, you’ll definitely want to read it to mine the limited magic that is here. Just know to come to it with the sails of your expectations trimmed.
June 16, 2019
بی نهایت ناراحتم از اینکه اخرین کتابی ست که از براتیگان دارم..هر صفحه که میخواندم یک صفحه به پایان نزدیک میشدم و حس سختی بود..
نفس عمیقی میکشد و ادامه میدهد:
و به اندازه هر اثری از براتیگان فوق العاده ست..پر از جادوی براتیگان..
پایانی مناسب برای یک دوره..دوره ی براتیگان..
نفس عمیقی میکشد و ادامه میدهد:
و به اندازه هر اثری از براتیگان فوق العاده ست..پر از جادوی براتیگان..
پایانی مناسب برای یک دوره..دوره ی براتیگان..
November 30, 2013
well, that's it, i've read all his books now.
shit.
shit.
August 9, 2017
کسل کننده .. فاقد جذابیت
July 24, 2023
The Tokyo Montana Express
by Richard Brautigan
This is a 250 page collection of Brautigan's musings largely based on his recent experiences living in Livingston Montana and Tokyo Japan. This book is prose but Brautigan turns much of it into poetry. The carefully chosen words and imagery are vintage Brautigan. The irreverent humor, loneliness mixed with optimism and his views on sexuality are also vintage Brautigan.
Here were my favorite chapters.
1. The Irrevocable Sadness of her Thank You.
2. Montana Love
3. One Arm Burning in Tokyo
4. Light On at the Tastee Freez
5. Times Square in Montana
6. The Menu/1965
7. A Different Way of Looking at President Kennedy's Assassination
8. Self Portrait as an Old Man
9. Homage to Rudi Gernreich/1965
10. Old Man Working the Rain
11. The Good Work of Chickens
While Trout Fishing in America is his best novel this one - written a few years before his death in the early eighties - is very good if you like his style of writing. He was one of a kind and a very observant writer.
4.5 stars
by Richard Brautigan
This is a 250 page collection of Brautigan's musings largely based on his recent experiences living in Livingston Montana and Tokyo Japan. This book is prose but Brautigan turns much of it into poetry. The carefully chosen words and imagery are vintage Brautigan. The irreverent humor, loneliness mixed with optimism and his views on sexuality are also vintage Brautigan.
Here were my favorite chapters.
1. The Irrevocable Sadness of her Thank You.
2. Montana Love
3. One Arm Burning in Tokyo
4. Light On at the Tastee Freez
5. Times Square in Montana
6. The Menu/1965
7. A Different Way of Looking at President Kennedy's Assassination
8. Self Portrait as an Old Man
9. Homage to Rudi Gernreich/1965
10. Old Man Working the Rain
11. The Good Work of Chickens
While Trout Fishing in America is his best novel this one - written a few years before his death in the early eighties - is very good if you like his style of writing. He was one of a kind and a very observant writer.
4.5 stars
February 4, 2016
گاهی شبها قبل از خواب بهش فکر میکنم اما تنها چیزی که ازش یادم میاد اینه که سگ داشت. تو کافه با هم آشنا شدیم. با هم کمی حرف زدیم چندتا نوشیدنی خوردیم. بعد رفتیم خونهش. توی هال یه دوچرخه بود. نزدیک بود بخورم بهش. درست کنار در بود.
با هم بودیم و یادمه که سگ داشت.
با هم بودیم و یادمه که سگ داشت.
June 26, 2022
" نامه ای به براتیگان "
سلام ریچارد عزیز، چند روز پیش مجموعه ای از داستان هایت را خواندم، باید اعتراف کنم برخی از آنها واقعا زیبا بود، این جمله یکی از داستان هایت را خیلی دوست داشتم : اقیانوس آرام را در همان سکو زیر کاغذ یک آبنبات جا گذاشتم، همانند باقی زندگی خودت که زیر نوشته های مچاله شده ات، کنار آن پنجره رو به دریا باقی ماند. مدام از خود می پرسم تو کیستی؟ تمام سایت های فارسی جز مشتی ابهام چیزی روانه ام نمیکنند، مدام میگویند : نویسنده ای عاشق شکار که در نهایت خودش شکار شد. باید اعتراف کنم چراها در زندگی تو بسیار است، پس تصمیم گرفتم تو رو از میان نوشته هایت باز بشناسم. مواجهه اول من غمی بود که از سطرهای کتابت می چکید و بعد صفحه به صفحه شاهد فرار کردنت بودم، تو به تماشای آدمها می نشستی و من نظاره گر تو بودم، تنهایی را میدیدم که قدم به قدم با تو می آمد و مثل خزه بند بند وجودت را مال خود می کرد، تو چنان از حضورش هراس داشتی که کوچ گردی ات را پایانی نبود. هر کجا که می رفتی وطنت میشد و هر جایی خانه ات، تنهایی در میان آغوشت لانه کرده بود و حتی در شلوغ ترین خیابان های توکیو و در زیر بارانی از کلمات و توصیفات دفن نمیشد. گاهی آنقدر به تو نزدیک میشد که سرمایش را، من هم احساس میکردم. ولی از دید من تنهایی دو دست دارد، یکی برای بخشیدن و دیگری برای ستاندن، منصف که باشی میبینی تنهایی چقدر روحت و قلمت را پیچیده و متفاوت کرده بود، باعث شده بود از پس عینکت رقص پای گنجشک ها و ناپدید شدن شوالیه ها را در نور ببینی، عطر خوش شکوفه های پرتغال را از تن نوزادان استشمام کنی و با سایه ها یکی گردی، شراب ها را در رگهایت می ریختی که بگویی زندگی یکپارچه بازیست، همانند هایکویی کوتاه و مختصر، می آید و قبل از باز شدن پلک هایت میرود. از نوشته هایت فهمیدم زندگی چیزی جزء دوباره و دوباره دیدن نیست، اینکه زندگی همواره به دردهای ما بی اعتناست و هیچ گاه بر ساز انعطاف ما نمی رقصد، ماییم که باید از مرداب راکد بودن را بیاموزیم، او همواره می نگرد و به ما می گوید گاهی جستجو کردن در، درون انجام ندادن است که رخ می دهد، این دست نگه داشتن زیبایی آمیخته با تفکر است، پس در ایستگاه اخر حقیقتی پنهان نیست، حقیقت لذت بردن از بیداری است، این را که بدانی محل پیاده شدنت هم مشخص می گردد .....
سلام ریچارد عزیز، چند روز پیش مجموعه ای از داستان هایت را خواندم، باید اعتراف کنم برخی از آنها واقعا زیبا بود، این جمله یکی از داستان هایت را خیلی دوست داشتم : اقیانوس آرام را در همان سکو زیر کاغذ یک آبنبات جا گذاشتم، همانند باقی زندگی خودت که زیر نوشته های مچاله شده ات، کنار آن پنجره رو به دریا باقی ماند. مدام از خود می پرسم تو کیستی؟ تمام سایت های فارسی جز مشتی ابهام چیزی روانه ام نمیکنند، مدام میگویند : نویسنده ای عاشق شکار که در نهایت خودش شکار شد. باید اعتراف کنم چراها در زندگی تو بسیار است، پس تصمیم گرفتم تو رو از میان نوشته هایت باز بشناسم. مواجهه اول من غمی بود که از سطرهای کتابت می چکید و بعد صفحه به صفحه شاهد فرار کردنت بودم، تو به تماشای آدمها می نشستی و من نظاره گر تو بودم، تنهایی را میدیدم که قدم به قدم با تو می آمد و مثل خزه بند بند وجودت را مال خود می کرد، تو چنان از حضورش هراس داشتی که کوچ گردی ات را پایانی نبود. هر کجا که می رفتی وطنت میشد و هر جایی خانه ات، تنهایی در میان آغوشت لانه کرده بود و حتی در شلوغ ترین خیابان های توکیو و در زیر بارانی از کلمات و توصیفات دفن نمیشد. گاهی آنقدر به تو نزدیک میشد که سرمایش را، من هم احساس میکردم. ولی از دید من تنهایی دو دست دارد، یکی برای بخشیدن و دیگری برای ستاندن، منصف که باشی میبینی تنهایی چقدر روحت و قلمت را پیچیده و متفاوت کرده بود، باعث شده بود از پس عینکت رقص پای گنجشک ها و ناپدید شدن شوالیه ها را در نور ببینی، عطر خوش شکوفه های پرتغال را از تن نوزادان استشمام کنی و با سایه ها یکی گردی، شراب ها را در رگهایت می ریختی که بگویی زندگی یکپارچه بازیست، همانند هایکویی کوتاه و مختصر، می آید و قبل از باز شدن پلک هایت میرود. از نوشته هایت فهمیدم زندگی چیزی جزء دوباره و دوباره دیدن نیست، اینکه زندگی همواره به دردهای ما بی اعتناست و هیچ گاه بر ساز انعطاف ما نمی رقصد، ماییم که باید از مرداب راکد بودن را بیاموزیم، او همواره می نگرد و به ما می گوید گاهی جستجو کردن در، درون انجام ندادن است که رخ می دهد، این دست نگه داشتن زیبایی آمیخته با تفکر است، پس در ایستگاه اخر حقیقتی پنهان نیست، حقیقت لذت بردن از بیداری است، این را که بدانی محل پیاده شدنت هم مشخص می گردد .....
June 23, 2023
ترجمه و ویراستاریِ افتضاح، حس و حال این کتاب رو ازم گر��ت.
هر بخش کتاب حدودا یک صفحهست ولی شاید یک روز ذهن شمارو درگیر کنه.
با بعضی قسمتها اصلا ارتباط برقرار نکردم و حتی متوجه نشدم منظورش چیه. اما حدس میزنم مشکل از ترجمه باشه. (ترجمهش واقعا داغونه. اصلا باورم نمیشه چنین چیزی با این همه ایراد رو چاپ کردن و اصلاح هم نمیکنن!)
دوست دارم در آینده یه فرصت دوباره بهش بدم و متن انگلیسی کتاب رو بخونم.
هر بخش کتاب حدودا یک صفحهست ولی شاید یک روز ذهن شمارو درگیر کنه.
با بعضی قسمتها اصلا ارتباط برقرار نکردم و حتی متوجه نشدم منظورش چیه. اما حدس میزنم مشکل از ترجمه باشه. (ترجمهش واقعا داغونه. اصلا باورم نمیشه چنین چیزی با این همه ایراد رو چاپ کردن و اصلاح هم نمیکنن!)
دوست دارم در آینده یه فرصت دوباره بهش بدم و متن انگلیسی کتاب رو بخونم.
July 30, 2025
After long anticipation I’ve made my way to The Tokyo Montana Express in Richard Brautigan’s bibliography. I’ve been looking forward to this one since I first found my copy a little over a year ago. Previously inexperienced with late career Brautigan, this short story collection caught my eye from the title alone. Beyond just that alluring statement on the cover, I also found myself interested in each and every story I came across when flipping through this book. Planning a trip to Montana this summer was the final reason to finally pick this book up.
The Tokyo Montana Express lives up to the hype. I had high hopes for this book and even still I was blown away. In this collection we get a look into the later life of Richard Brautigan, following along with his travels and interests in the late 1970s. Traveling between Japan and Montana Brautigan lived a very interesting life, a glimpse of which is expertly captured here in this book.
The contents of this book are stories that alternate between Tokyo and Montana in their setting, as well as taking place in neither of these locations, although this is the central focus. Two locations that have very little in common the one throughline is the man writing, Mr. Brautigan. We get to see these places and daily life through his eyes, for better or worse. Like any Brautigan book, this is a deeply personal work that spans the well of human emotion. We get a little of everything here from the silly and absurd to the sad and melancholy.
Brautigan is aging and often reminiscing about his childhood or the 1960s in San Francisco but still he is present in the late 1970s. His commentary in this book often feels more modern than the classic works of his San Francisco heyday and makes you wonder what Brautigan would be writing about if he had lived further on into the 21st Century.
One story entitled “The Old Testament Book of the Phone Company” has Brautigan dealing with the bureaucracy of trying to get a phone line installed in his rural Montana home to little avail. Anyone who has tried getting internet set up in a new home will relate to this in a modern sense, even given the surreal nature of the story. It will make you wonder how Brautigan would have handled it had he lived to see the Dot Com era.
Brautigan really marries these two locations together in such a beautiful way. He points out the lively nature of small town Montana as well as the deeply personal observations of Tokyo. He is someone who has always seen the potential in any subject but it is amazing to see him still be so fresh at this later point in his career. There are stories here that are some of my favorites pieces I’ve ever read from him. If you are a Brautigan fan this is a must read and even if you are not some of these stories make great introductions and really offer that special fascination that only someone like Brautigan can capture on a page.
I started this collection in the week preceding my Trip to Montana, read a great deal of it while on that trip, and finished it after my return. Reading the latter half of this book I was instantly drawn back to memories of my trip and reading this book, seeing many of the same locations Brautigan wrote about in this collection. Traveling with this work really was an added joy and if I am ever to go to Japan I would like to reread this book on that trip.
A few of the stories in this collection reference Groucho Marx. Brautigan had brought a biography of him along on his trip to Japan. He really took a fascination with the man and his life. In one story he speaks of Groucho Marx as being there with him, that Japan to him is colored by this man and how that is a unique experience to him as he observes the others around him in Tokyo. In some ways I feel the same, bringing Brautigan along with me over the last month, attaching this man to my trip in a similar, personal and unique way.
The Tokyo Montana Express lives up to the hype. I had high hopes for this book and even still I was blown away. In this collection we get a look into the later life of Richard Brautigan, following along with his travels and interests in the late 1970s. Traveling between Japan and Montana Brautigan lived a very interesting life, a glimpse of which is expertly captured here in this book.
The contents of this book are stories that alternate between Tokyo and Montana in their setting, as well as taking place in neither of these locations, although this is the central focus. Two locations that have very little in common the one throughline is the man writing, Mr. Brautigan. We get to see these places and daily life through his eyes, for better or worse. Like any Brautigan book, this is a deeply personal work that spans the well of human emotion. We get a little of everything here from the silly and absurd to the sad and melancholy.
Brautigan is aging and often reminiscing about his childhood or the 1960s in San Francisco but still he is present in the late 1970s. His commentary in this book often feels more modern than the classic works of his San Francisco heyday and makes you wonder what Brautigan would be writing about if he had lived further on into the 21st Century.
One story entitled “The Old Testament Book of the Phone Company” has Brautigan dealing with the bureaucracy of trying to get a phone line installed in his rural Montana home to little avail. Anyone who has tried getting internet set up in a new home will relate to this in a modern sense, even given the surreal nature of the story. It will make you wonder how Brautigan would have handled it had he lived to see the Dot Com era.
Brautigan really marries these two locations together in such a beautiful way. He points out the lively nature of small town Montana as well as the deeply personal observations of Tokyo. He is someone who has always seen the potential in any subject but it is amazing to see him still be so fresh at this later point in his career. There are stories here that are some of my favorites pieces I’ve ever read from him. If you are a Brautigan fan this is a must read and even if you are not some of these stories make great introductions and really offer that special fascination that only someone like Brautigan can capture on a page.
I started this collection in the week preceding my Trip to Montana, read a great deal of it while on that trip, and finished it after my return. Reading the latter half of this book I was instantly drawn back to memories of my trip and reading this book, seeing many of the same locations Brautigan wrote about in this collection. Traveling with this work really was an added joy and if I am ever to go to Japan I would like to reread this book on that trip.
A few of the stories in this collection reference Groucho Marx. Brautigan had brought a biography of him along on his trip to Japan. He really took a fascination with the man and his life. In one story he speaks of Groucho Marx as being there with him, that Japan to him is colored by this man and how that is a unique experience to him as he observes the others around him in Tokyo. In some ways I feel the same, bringing Brautigan along with me over the last month, attaching this man to my trip in a similar, personal and unique way.
December 12, 2017
Sushi and pancakes do mix
Back when I was a teenager, I journeyed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan in the "Hikawa Maru". That passenger ship was the only one of the fleet to survive World War II. It was wall-to-wall rivets, a kind of Milky Way of rivets. The morning when the ship arrived in Yokohama harbor, I saw Mt. Fuji towering up into the sky. Everything smelled new. Just like Columbus, I'd sailed across the ocean and discovered America, only my America was Japan. Some years later, after I'd learned Japanese and become a kabuki fan, I married a woman from India. With another Indian lady, who studied Physics, we once drove right across Montana, from west to east. It was a long drive. I didn't like the metal crosses standing beside the roads. They showed me that people in Montana drove a little too wildly. Besides, being Jewish, I didn't want to end up as a cross on a lonesome road in Montana. But once, as we sped along at 70 mph or so on a deserted stretch, a carful of Indian teenagers suddenly careened across the highway right in front of us and curved into the other lane. I missed them by inches. In the split-second it took, I looked into the eyes of the kid at the wheel. He was scared ****less, out of control. There could have been a disaster of Indians there; a close encounter of the worst kind. Jews, Hindus, and Native Americans, all on one big cross with many little branches, like a kind of ghastly menorah. We all survived to have our lives. That's my Tokyo-Montana express story.
There are countless little gems in this volume of Brautigan's work. There's a 50 word story called "Cold Kingdom Enterprise" about a knight who had 50 words to live in. There are stories from Japan, Montana, California, Arizona, Texas, and even Beirut. I figure "Another Texas Ghost Story" has to be one of the great American short stories. Brautigan buys humidifiers, returns burned out light bulbs that didn't make his barn look like Times Square, scorns high-falutin' popcorn labels, catches fish, and admires Japanese women. Tales of looking for a $3 tire chain in the snow, tales of a dead Canadian airman's former girlfriend. He wonders why his friend is always home to answer the phone. He can write a story on "werewolf raspberries"---something few authors have attempted. Every time his sad humor gets to you, his wit and his remarkable imagination touch you like almost no other writer I know. What can I say ? Though in this volume he was already growing tired and a few stories may not be up to the usual standard, you can still enjoy vintage Brautigan in THE TOKYO-MONTANA EXPRESS. If you're a fan, you can't afford to miss this one. If you never read him---nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.
Back when I was a teenager, I journeyed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan in the "Hikawa Maru". That passenger ship was the only one of the fleet to survive World War II. It was wall-to-wall rivets, a kind of Milky Way of rivets. The morning when the ship arrived in Yokohama harbor, I saw Mt. Fuji towering up into the sky. Everything smelled new. Just like Columbus, I'd sailed across the ocean and discovered America, only my America was Japan. Some years later, after I'd learned Japanese and become a kabuki fan, I married a woman from India. With another Indian lady, who studied Physics, we once drove right across Montana, from west to east. It was a long drive. I didn't like the metal crosses standing beside the roads. They showed me that people in Montana drove a little too wildly. Besides, being Jewish, I didn't want to end up as a cross on a lonesome road in Montana. But once, as we sped along at 70 mph or so on a deserted stretch, a carful of Indian teenagers suddenly careened across the highway right in front of us and curved into the other lane. I missed them by inches. In the split-second it took, I looked into the eyes of the kid at the wheel. He was scared ****less, out of control. There could have been a disaster of Indians there; a close encounter of the worst kind. Jews, Hindus, and Native Americans, all on one big cross with many little branches, like a kind of ghastly menorah. We all survived to have our lives. That's my Tokyo-Montana express story.
There are countless little gems in this volume of Brautigan's work. There's a 50 word story called "Cold Kingdom Enterprise" about a knight who had 50 words to live in. There are stories from Japan, Montana, California, Arizona, Texas, and even Beirut. I figure "Another Texas Ghost Story" has to be one of the great American short stories. Brautigan buys humidifiers, returns burned out light bulbs that didn't make his barn look like Times Square, scorns high-falutin' popcorn labels, catches fish, and admires Japanese women. Tales of looking for a $3 tire chain in the snow, tales of a dead Canadian airman's former girlfriend. He wonders why his friend is always home to answer the phone. He can write a story on "werewolf raspberries"---something few authors have attempted. Every time his sad humor gets to you, his wit and his remarkable imagination touch you like almost no other writer I know. What can I say ? Though in this volume he was already growing tired and a few stories may not be up to the usual standard, you can still enjoy vintage Brautigan in THE TOKYO-MONTANA EXPRESS. If you're a fan, you can't afford to miss this one. If you never read him---nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.
August 17, 2021
من متاسفم برای نشر روزنه واقعا. توی هر قسمت مربوط به چاپ کتاب از پیش تولید بگیر تا چاپ وقتی دقت می کنی مشکل پیدا می کنی. ترجمه مشکل داره، ویراستاری مشکل داره، غلط املایی کودکانه تو کتاب وجود داره. لحن نوشتار توی یه پاراگراف گاها عوض می شه. طرح جلد کتاب مطابق با عطف کتاب طراحی نشده. سلفون روی جلد خیلی بی کیفیته، مال من دیه تقریبا ور اومده و برش صفحات هم اشتباه بوده طوری که متن با چارچوب صفحه زاویه داره. به هر حال علیرغم تمام این توصیفات، خوندن این کتاب خیلی لذت بخش بود. خوندنش طوری لذت بخشه ک نمی شه به روشنی توضیحش داد. دستش درد نکنه انصافا :دی همزمان هم دمش گرم هم لعنت بهش، چقدر جوری ک براتیگان دنیا رو می دید جالب بود :دی
December 31, 2010
Reading this book is like continually having a two beer buzz: A slightly impared understanding of reality, a sense of humor that can be interpreted as sarcastic or simple, an ease of language applied to the beauty of the world, ever day magic. Brautigan writes postcards directly to your brain.
May 11, 2011
Having just read "The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western" by Brautigan & having liked it but feeling a bit unsatisfied by what easy reading it was I turned to this not knowing what to expect but expecting a novel of similar ilk - but instead this.. is different.. AND given my taste for inventiveness.. I was PLEASED. This is somewhat unique. I wdn't call it a novel.. it's more a collection of ruminations couched in a writing style that keeps it away from being any established genre in particular.. &, YET, it's still easy-ish reading.. but probably a bit too original for a general readership. There's so much here. He manages to tell short tales in a fairly concise way but still manages to twist the language around in ways I found engaging.
& the tragedy of his having committed suicide haunts me: in "No Hunting Without Permission" there's this: Brautigan's been having a bad day, he phones a 'friend':
"[..] At one point toward the end of our thousand-mile little chat, I said: "Well, I've just been fishing and writing. I've written several little short stories this week."
""Nobody cares," my friend said. And he was right."
W/ friends like that who needs enemies, right? I HOPE Brautigan's 'friend' committed suicide.
In "Skylab at the Graves of Abbott and Costello", he wrote:
"If you are expecting something dramatic to be revealed about chickens and their place in the firmament, forget about it. What I am about to reveal here could not be used as the plot for a disaster movie starring Burt Reynolds as a chicken rancher who takes the law in his own hands with brilliant cameo appearances by Reggie Jackson, Lillian Carter, Red Buttons, Bill Walton, Elizabeth Taylor, the graves of Abbott and Costello, and also starring Charlton Heston as "Oak.""
Now that's near the beginning. The last paragraph:
"I think you get the picture of what was going on in my mind except that I have not told you the reason for this story. Sometimes I feel just like the chicken who got all six ears of corn on his head."
Were the paragraphs in between worth it? Definitely.
Then there's "Hangover as Folk Art". I've written a note to myself that suggests I shd quote this in full. Feeling not up to that at the moment, even though it's short, I'll let one paragraph quasi-suffice:
"Normally, a real bad hangover bites the dust when the sun goes down. It dies like a snake. This hangover didn't die at all. It changed into folk art made from my central nervous system, my stomach and the little stretches of imagination I call my brain."
As usual, his development is brilliant. Good short story writers are expected to develop & surprise as quickly as possible & Brautigan is damned good at that. In "California Mailman" he manages to take the presumably common occurrence of disappointing mail & turn it into a story (not really) about ESP, dreams, cults, whatnot. All this in less than a page. It's funny, it's sad, it's a big accomplishment in a small space, a droll short story 'haiku'. "Cold Kingdom Enterprise" in its entirety:
"Once upon a time there was a dwarf knight who only had fifty word [sic] to live in and they were so fleeting that he only had time to put on a suit of armor and ride swiftly on a black horse into a very well-lit woods where he vanished forever."
Of course, it's a 50 word story. The 1st Flash Fiction, perhaps?
"The Menu / 1965" took me by surprise. He writes about visiting San Quentin prison & getting the menu for food fed to prisoners on Death Row there. Then he takes the menu & shows it to friends. Everyone is disturbed by this. Some seem to think that the Death Row prisoners are being fed too well. Whatever Brautigan's motives, whatever people got out of this, this was, indeed, a strange story ripe w/ implication every wch way. A sample paragraph from it:
"I carried the menu in a Manila envelope past innocent and unassuming people going to the store to buy halibut steak for dinner and then to fall asleep while watching television on Channel 7."
I like the way he uses meandering to rope in people apparently unrelated to the story.
& then there's "Castle of the Snow Bride": another one that took me by surprise: a description of his ultimate fantasy porn film told in such a way that one isn't exactly sure whether it's imaginary or not - as if even the author isn't sure whether it's imaginary or not.
Brautigan wrote 2 more bks after this. If they advanced on what he accomplished here they must really be something.
& the tragedy of his having committed suicide haunts me: in "No Hunting Without Permission" there's this: Brautigan's been having a bad day, he phones a 'friend':
"[..] At one point toward the end of our thousand-mile little chat, I said: "Well, I've just been fishing and writing. I've written several little short stories this week."
""Nobody cares," my friend said. And he was right."
W/ friends like that who needs enemies, right? I HOPE Brautigan's 'friend' committed suicide.
In "Skylab at the Graves of Abbott and Costello", he wrote:
"If you are expecting something dramatic to be revealed about chickens and their place in the firmament, forget about it. What I am about to reveal here could not be used as the plot for a disaster movie starring Burt Reynolds as a chicken rancher who takes the law in his own hands with brilliant cameo appearances by Reggie Jackson, Lillian Carter, Red Buttons, Bill Walton, Elizabeth Taylor, the graves of Abbott and Costello, and also starring Charlton Heston as "Oak.""
Now that's near the beginning. The last paragraph:
"I think you get the picture of what was going on in my mind except that I have not told you the reason for this story. Sometimes I feel just like the chicken who got all six ears of corn on his head."
Were the paragraphs in between worth it? Definitely.
Then there's "Hangover as Folk Art". I've written a note to myself that suggests I shd quote this in full. Feeling not up to that at the moment, even though it's short, I'll let one paragraph quasi-suffice:
"Normally, a real bad hangover bites the dust when the sun goes down. It dies like a snake. This hangover didn't die at all. It changed into folk art made from my central nervous system, my stomach and the little stretches of imagination I call my brain."
As usual, his development is brilliant. Good short story writers are expected to develop & surprise as quickly as possible & Brautigan is damned good at that. In "California Mailman" he manages to take the presumably common occurrence of disappointing mail & turn it into a story (not really) about ESP, dreams, cults, whatnot. All this in less than a page. It's funny, it's sad, it's a big accomplishment in a small space, a droll short story 'haiku'. "Cold Kingdom Enterprise" in its entirety:
"Once upon a time there was a dwarf knight who only had fifty word [sic] to live in and they were so fleeting that he only had time to put on a suit of armor and ride swiftly on a black horse into a very well-lit woods where he vanished forever."
Of course, it's a 50 word story. The 1st Flash Fiction, perhaps?
"The Menu / 1965" took me by surprise. He writes about visiting San Quentin prison & getting the menu for food fed to prisoners on Death Row there. Then he takes the menu & shows it to friends. Everyone is disturbed by this. Some seem to think that the Death Row prisoners are being fed too well. Whatever Brautigan's motives, whatever people got out of this, this was, indeed, a strange story ripe w/ implication every wch way. A sample paragraph from it:
"I carried the menu in a Manila envelope past innocent and unassuming people going to the store to buy halibut steak for dinner and then to fall asleep while watching television on Channel 7."
I like the way he uses meandering to rope in people apparently unrelated to the story.
& then there's "Castle of the Snow Bride": another one that took me by surprise: a description of his ultimate fantasy porn film told in such a way that one isn't exactly sure whether it's imaginary or not - as if even the author isn't sure whether it's imaginary or not.
Brautigan wrote 2 more bks after this. If they advanced on what he accomplished here they must really be something.
April 23, 2016
I've never been too sure what to make of Richard Brautigan. I like some of his books (generally his earlier ones) but find some of his books just a bit too whimsical. The problem for me is when he tried too hard to be whacky, as it always seemed a bit too false. I think The Hawkline Monster is the one I'm thinking of here.
However, The Tokyo-Montana Express was a revelation. He's retained his whimsicality, but it no longer seems strained. No longer is he trying to outdo Vonnegut, no longer is he trying to create a novel, instead what we get is a book of short prose poems. And they feel right. This seems to be Brautigan's style of choice...and it works like a charm.
However, The Tokyo-Montana Express was a revelation. He's retained his whimsicality, but it no longer seems strained. No longer is he trying to outdo Vonnegut, no longer is he trying to create a novel, instead what we get is a book of short prose poems. And they feel right. This seems to be Brautigan's style of choice...and it works like a charm.
January 21, 2023
Reading short stories is not my top priority, but since I want to read all of Brautigan's books before I die, I read this one and I don't regret it at all.
This work is like a memoir. Its mood is very dark and desperate filled with Brautigan's usual humour. A large number of stories are related to death. No wonder why this wonderful writer ends up killing himself. You get the Idea from the following pieces:
“Sometimes when I finish writing something, perhaps even this, I feel as if I am handing out useless handbills or I am an old man standing in the rain, wearing shitty clothes and holding a sign for a cabaret that is filled with the beautiful and enticing skeletons of young women that sound like dominoes when they walk toward you coming in the door.”
“I spend a lot of my life interested in little things, tiny portions of reality like a pinch of spice in a very complicated recipe that takes days to cook, sometimes even longer “Any more spice than the single pinch and you’re walking on dangerous ground. Two pinches is totally out of the question and the meal is ruined. Send out for the hot dogs.”
This work is like a memoir. Its mood is very dark and desperate filled with Brautigan's usual humour. A large number of stories are related to death. No wonder why this wonderful writer ends up killing himself. You get the Idea from the following pieces:
“Sometimes when I finish writing something, perhaps even this, I feel as if I am handing out useless handbills or I am an old man standing in the rain, wearing shitty clothes and holding a sign for a cabaret that is filled with the beautiful and enticing skeletons of young women that sound like dominoes when they walk toward you coming in the door.”
“I spend a lot of my life interested in little things, tiny portions of reality like a pinch of spice in a very complicated recipe that takes days to cook, sometimes even longer “Any more spice than the single pinch and you’re walking on dangerous ground. Two pinches is totally out of the question and the meal is ruined. Send out for the hot dogs.”
June 16, 2024
Franchement I did not like this book.
I am a big Brautigan fan, so I listed my favorites, especially for any Brautigan debutants. The list is from best to worst.
1. So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away 🍔
2. Sombrero Fallout 😂
3. Trout Fishing In America🎏
4. Willard and His Bowling Trophies 🎳
5. The Abortion 📚
6. Revenge of the Lawn🦗
7. In Watermelon Sugar 🍉
8. An Unfortunate Woman ♀️
9. Tokyo Montana Express 🚂
Feel free to leave your thoughts 👇
What is your favorite? 🥸
I am a big Brautigan fan, so I listed my favorites, especially for any Brautigan debutants. The list is from best to worst.
1. So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away 🍔
2. Sombrero Fallout 😂
3. Trout Fishing In America🎏
4. Willard and His Bowling Trophies 🎳
5. The Abortion 📚
6. Revenge of the Lawn🦗
7. In Watermelon Sugar 🍉
8. An Unfortunate Woman ♀️
9. Tokyo Montana Express 🚂
Feel free to leave your thoughts 👇
What is your favorite? 🥸
August 17, 2013
This is one of my favorite books of all time! To understand the book, imagine that you are riding on a train and each piece of writing is a station stop on the route. I love it because it has no narrative but there is a theme that gets gleened from the book at the end. Maybe that theme is just Brautigan's idiosyncratic life view, or maybe it's a broader commentary on the 60's and 70's. He has a way of musing about the small things in life, making a hugely significant event about a small gesture. "Cat Cantaloupe" is a story that always makes me smile.
The actual book I own is an old library copy. I think it's from Richmond, California. It still has the card catalog card in the envelope with the last check out date stamped on it. And of course ... that old book smell.
The actual book I own is an old library copy. I think it's from Richmond, California. It still has the card catalog card in the envelope with the last check out date stamped on it. And of course ... that old book smell.
September 28, 2023
Last spring I had a season of Brautigan in which I read almost everything available by him. This one I started but abandoned a couple pages in. Decided to finish it in an effort to clear out my "currently reading" shelf.
I almost wish I hadn't. There is so little of what I love about his writing here. There are a few golden Brautigan sentences and paragraphs, and exactly 3 stories I loved (oddly, all having something to do with chickens), but for the most part the writing is lackluster and overwhelmingly cynical. To add to my frustration, the kindle edition is chock full of typos.
I guess I am happy to have completed my Brautigan project finally after a year and a half, but I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who isn't a completist.
I almost wish I hadn't. There is so little of what I love about his writing here. There are a few golden Brautigan sentences and paragraphs, and exactly 3 stories I loved (oddly, all having something to do with chickens), but for the most part the writing is lackluster and overwhelmingly cynical. To add to my frustration, the kindle edition is chock full of typos.
I guess I am happy to have completed my Brautigan project finally after a year and a half, but I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who isn't a completist.
January 9, 2015
The subtitle on this one is a giveaway. "The Tokyo-Montana Express," the title blazes across the cover. Followed by, "A Book By Richard Brautigan." Not a novel. Not "stories." Not "poems." A "book." This is the second-to-last book published during Brautigan's lifetime. It's followed by the eerily prescient "So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away," which deals with bullets and accidental death and thoughts of suicide (Brautigan would put a bullet into himself a few years later, in 1984), and preceded by "Dreaming of Babylon," the last of his fake-genre satires, that time a detective parody.
The titular train is a red herring -- you would hope that it might be one of Richard's fanciful location creations, like the library in "The Abortion," the town in "In Watermelon Sugar," or the place where the frozen sombrero falls in "Sombrero Fallout." And the intro wants you to believe it is -- each of the 131 chapter-ettes is a different "station," and the "I" is the voice of the station, supposedly. Actually, it's just a bunch of impressions typed up by Brautigan, half while living in Montana, the other half in Tokyo. He shuffled the deck, came up with some catch chapter titles, and there you have it.
One of my favorite books is his short story collection, "The Revenge of the Lawn." It's a lovely combination of quiet absurdity, everyday realism, sweet pathos and girl-crazy women ogling. "Tokyo-Montana" has a similar tone, adding little puffs of insight to situations like passing a Tastee-Freeze that's closed for the winter, buying brighter light bulbs for your cabin, collecting 390 photographs of Christmas trees lying out in the street in January, and watching people at Japanese subway stops. A generous handful of the stories have something to recommend them. A few were laugh-out-loud funny, and a few others were quietly affecting. Two or three were downright magical. The bulk of them just passed by without much notice.
The book is girded with recurring feelings of aging, falling into obscurity, days drifting into days, and a portrait of middle age that makes it sound like the author feels 30 years older than his actual age (he claims to be 45 or so). If "So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away" is prophetic in cataloging his final desperation, "Tokyo-Montana" shows an author for whom the flavor is disappearing from life, and who is trying desperately to keep a little handful of whimsy tucked away to stave off the dark days.
If you're interested in trying some Brautigan, I recommend "In Watermelon Sugar," "Revenge of the Lawn," "The Abortion," or "Sombrero Fallout." Roughly in that order. I haven't yet read his postuhumously-published novel, "An Unfortunate Woman," but for now, "The Tokyo-Montana Express" ranks down near "Willard & His Bowling Trophies" in the unenviable "tie for last" ranking. But even middling Brautigan is worth a browse, and if the wash of these little stories and impressions beats against you ceaselessly like an unchanging tide, feel free to have a look around. There are little glints of light all around for you to enjoy.
The titular train is a red herring -- you would hope that it might be one of Richard's fanciful location creations, like the library in "The Abortion," the town in "In Watermelon Sugar," or the place where the frozen sombrero falls in "Sombrero Fallout." And the intro wants you to believe it is -- each of the 131 chapter-ettes is a different "station," and the "I" is the voice of the station, supposedly. Actually, it's just a bunch of impressions typed up by Brautigan, half while living in Montana, the other half in Tokyo. He shuffled the deck, came up with some catch chapter titles, and there you have it.
One of my favorite books is his short story collection, "The Revenge of the Lawn." It's a lovely combination of quiet absurdity, everyday realism, sweet pathos and girl-crazy women ogling. "Tokyo-Montana" has a similar tone, adding little puffs of insight to situations like passing a Tastee-Freeze that's closed for the winter, buying brighter light bulbs for your cabin, collecting 390 photographs of Christmas trees lying out in the street in January, and watching people at Japanese subway stops. A generous handful of the stories have something to recommend them. A few were laugh-out-loud funny, and a few others were quietly affecting. Two or three were downright magical. The bulk of them just passed by without much notice.
The book is girded with recurring feelings of aging, falling into obscurity, days drifting into days, and a portrait of middle age that makes it sound like the author feels 30 years older than his actual age (he claims to be 45 or so). If "So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away" is prophetic in cataloging his final desperation, "Tokyo-Montana" shows an author for whom the flavor is disappearing from life, and who is trying desperately to keep a little handful of whimsy tucked away to stave off the dark days.
If you're interested in trying some Brautigan, I recommend "In Watermelon Sugar," "Revenge of the Lawn," "The Abortion," or "Sombrero Fallout." Roughly in that order. I haven't yet read his postuhumously-published novel, "An Unfortunate Woman," but for now, "The Tokyo-Montana Express" ranks down near "Willard & His Bowling Trophies" in the unenviable "tie for last" ranking. But even middling Brautigan is worth a browse, and if the wash of these little stories and impressions beats against you ceaselessly like an unchanging tide, feel free to have a look around. There are little glints of light all around for you to enjoy.
January 30, 2015
For the most part the inert ramblings of a has-been well on the road to disintegration into the loneliness and incoherence of old age, at times excessively so, such as extended diatribes on replacing light-bulbs, watching the temperature change on a thermometer, and umbrellas, but interspersed with occasional instances of his rare genius, like the strange adventures of a death row dinner menu and a certain Swedish migrant in the Californian Gold Rush. The things his attention latches onto, like vanishing schools, misleading automobile advertisements, and popcorn, range from the mundane to the peculiar, but always in Brautigan’s domestic sense of the term. Despite the low rating, I did quite enjoy the book, picking at it slowly over my morning coffee, as I believe it ought to be read. But this is C-grade Brautigan, and mere table-scraps compared to his earlier innovative works like Trout Fishing. Fans and the curious only.
November 23, 2024
"The wind and the night seemed endless...My dreams were shaking like a pair of false teeth in an old-folks home during an earthquake. They jumped around in a bedside glass like a fish."
131 short fictions about Montana, Japan, and chickens. Raymond Carver likened some of them to “little astonishments going off in your hand”, but wished – surprisingly - that Brautigan had had a sterner editor...
I initially found the pieces – some just a few lines long – a little slight. Gradually, however, they begin to build a forlorn picture, tempered by humour, of puzzlement, age, impermanence, and loss.
“What I once knew and was so important to me, I can’t remember now. It has been claimed and taken away by the forces of time...gone like the buffalo with nothing to assume its place.”
October 27, 2018
داستانها تقریبا یکی در میان، در توکیو و مونتانا رخ میدهند. خیلیهاشان هم داستان به معنای کلاسیک نیستند. گاهی توصیف یک حس آنی، گاهی بیان یک اندوه پنهان.
اما فغان از ترجمه و حروفچینی و .... یک دفعه عیش آدم را منغص میکرد. کاش دستی به سروگوش کتاب بکشند تا به یک اثر شایسته نویسندهاش بدل شود.
اما فغان از ترجمه و حروفچینی و .... یک دفعه عیش آدم را منغص میکرد. کاش دستی به سروگوش کتاب بکشند تا به یک اثر شایسته نویسندهاش بدل شود.
December 26, 2007
This one is thicker than most Brautigan novels and arguably more personal. It's incredibly funny but also foreshadows Brautigans tragic end. Everyone should read this book.
March 28, 2021
Kürtaj ile birlikte okuduğum 2. kitap oldu yazarın. Brautigan intihar etmeyecek de kim edecek diye düşündüm kitabın sonunda. Empati yeteneği lanet olabiliyor bazı insanlar için ve bu kitap çok önceden sinyallerini veriyor yazarın sonu hakkında. Kitaptan çok Brautigan'ın hayal gücüne, ayrıntıcılığına ve paket lastiğinden dahi bir anlam çıkarıp hayatı sorgulatmasına hayran kaldım.
January 28, 2024
I will never not love my main boi Rich. Read over a series of lunch breaks and cold afternoons.
September 6, 2017
Once upon a time I used to dish out many a five-star review, all too generously.
Now, come to think of it, I give many four-star ratings, the occasional three-star rating, almost never a one- or two-star rating (because usually I have given up on the book by then anyway) an occasionally, when I discover that rare diamond in the rough, a five-star rating.
Well here I have found one. Being a fan of Richard Brautigan's writing might make me slightly biased but this is the last prose work of his I've had the pleasure of reading and it might possibly be the best.
What amazes me is that some of Brautigan's greatest and strongest work (this book, The Tokyo-Montana Express, Before the Wind Blows It All Away and The Unfortunate Woman) were all written at the end of his life, when he was a fading bookmark, if not an icon, to a more optimistic and idealistic time (i.e. the late 1960s).
I know most people love his earlier and more celebrated works such as Trout Fishing in America (which was one of the weirdest but most fascinating books I have ever read), In Watermelon Sugar and The Abortion and all of these books are great in their own way, simpler, shorter, the prose more terse and succinct somehow. More condensed statements.
However, I think there is a real depth and maturity to Brautigan's later works which have been somewhat overlooked, just like William Burroughs late masterpieces (The Cities of the Red Night trilogy) have been somewhat overshadowed by the massive presence and renown and notoriety of The Naked Lunch.
However, I must say I do agree with many other reviewers in saying that this is more a collection of short stories than a novel per se. That is, based on my understanding of what a novel conventionally is or the components it requires in order to be classified as a novel in the first place. The chapters in this book, or 'stations' along the way from Montana to Tokyo as Brautigan nicely puts it, are humorous and sometimes brilliantly and elegantly written little sketches that all have one thing in common - they either take place in Tokyo or in Montana, or somewhere in between the two places where Brautigan found himself in the late 1970s. If they all share the same 'theme' of 'happenings in Tokyo and Montana', then maybe it is a novel in some way, just like Faulkner's Go Down, Moses is partly a novel because all of the individual short stories in the book are about the same families and relatives.
This, to my mind, is Brautigan at the top of his game. The writing is succinct, to the point, witty, far-out and weird, humorous, sad, poetic etc. as we have to come to expect from him. There are many brilliant stories in this book, but to me personally, the real standouts were were The Good Work Of Chickens, Times Square in Montana and The Smallest Snowstorm on Record.
If you are a fan of Brautigan or new to Brautigan, you must read this book. It's great and finally - clocking in at around 250 pages (I'm not sure of the final number of pages as I read an uncorrected proof edition), it's one of the longest books Richard ever published I think and with the stellar quality of writing contained herein, it really is excellent value-for-money, food-for-thought and just general good 'ol entertainment. I will be returning to this volume whenever I need a laugh or need to take my mind off all the big problems in my life which Richard is able to with his humour and his whimsy.
Now, come to think of it, I give many four-star ratings, the occasional three-star rating, almost never a one- or two-star rating (because usually I have given up on the book by then anyway) an occasionally, when I discover that rare diamond in the rough, a five-star rating.
Well here I have found one. Being a fan of Richard Brautigan's writing might make me slightly biased but this is the last prose work of his I've had the pleasure of reading and it might possibly be the best.
What amazes me is that some of Brautigan's greatest and strongest work (this book, The Tokyo-Montana Express, Before the Wind Blows It All Away and The Unfortunate Woman) were all written at the end of his life, when he was a fading bookmark, if not an icon, to a more optimistic and idealistic time (i.e. the late 1960s).
I know most people love his earlier and more celebrated works such as Trout Fishing in America (which was one of the weirdest but most fascinating books I have ever read), In Watermelon Sugar and The Abortion and all of these books are great in their own way, simpler, shorter, the prose more terse and succinct somehow. More condensed statements.
However, I think there is a real depth and maturity to Brautigan's later works which have been somewhat overlooked, just like William Burroughs late masterpieces (The Cities of the Red Night trilogy) have been somewhat overshadowed by the massive presence and renown and notoriety of The Naked Lunch.
However, I must say I do agree with many other reviewers in saying that this is more a collection of short stories than a novel per se. That is, based on my understanding of what a novel conventionally is or the components it requires in order to be classified as a novel in the first place. The chapters in this book, or 'stations' along the way from Montana to Tokyo as Brautigan nicely puts it, are humorous and sometimes brilliantly and elegantly written little sketches that all have one thing in common - they either take place in Tokyo or in Montana, or somewhere in between the two places where Brautigan found himself in the late 1970s. If they all share the same 'theme' of 'happenings in Tokyo and Montana', then maybe it is a novel in some way, just like Faulkner's Go Down, Moses is partly a novel because all of the individual short stories in the book are about the same families and relatives.
This, to my mind, is Brautigan at the top of his game. The writing is succinct, to the point, witty, far-out and weird, humorous, sad, poetic etc. as we have to come to expect from him. There are many brilliant stories in this book, but to me personally, the real standouts were were The Good Work Of Chickens, Times Square in Montana and The Smallest Snowstorm on Record.
If you are a fan of Brautigan or new to Brautigan, you must read this book. It's great and finally - clocking in at around 250 pages (I'm not sure of the final number of pages as I read an uncorrected proof edition), it's one of the longest books Richard ever published I think and with the stellar quality of writing contained herein, it really is excellent value-for-money, food-for-thought and just general good 'ol entertainment. I will be returning to this volume whenever I need a laugh or need to take my mind off all the big problems in my life which Richard is able to with his humour and his whimsy.
July 26, 2019
Brautigan whimsy at its best...
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