The Octopus Frontier

by Richard Brautigan

A collection of 22 poems.

Genres: Poetry

20 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Richard 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.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 4th collection of Brautigan poetry featuring 22 of his poems from 1960. It includes one of my all-time favorite Brautigan poems:

The Pumpkin Tide

I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea.

Just a great poem with amazing imagery and a nice collection of poems.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small collection of poems by Richard Brautigan contains a nice mix of his various styles - Dadaist, humorous, minimalist (haiku-like), and even lyrical at times.

My favorites were "1942" (one of the best poems he ever wrote) and "The Winos on Potrero Hill" which reminded me of the chapter "Walden Pond for Winos" in his classic Trout Fishing in America. The poem called "The Old Folks Home" gave me a laugh too and "A Postcard from Chinatown" reminded me of the style of the Beats, especially Kerouac's poetic style (although Brautigan was not really a Beat, as he himself pointed out many times).

Most of the poems here contained surprising or striking images and were humorous at times. However, there were a few poems that really did not do much for me, falling rather flat on their faces, the poems that is. (Brautigan would probably approve of that image himself).

This is a short amusing read and is one of those great little books to take with you on holiday, so you can dip in and out of it when you have a spare moment. The only problem, once again is, its availability and affordability. There are not many copies available these days, but some of these poems can be found elsewhere, such as in The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster. The Japanese translation of that book, incidentally, is called "A Postcard from Chinatown," a poem that features in this book, The Octopus Frontier.

Highly recommended for Brautigan fans, moderately recommended for general poetry fans.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Brautigan's fourth poetry book is a major advance on his first and second, and a minor advance on his third. This is definitely the Brautigan we know and love, his unique voice fully developed in these poems. One of the most endearing and interesting offbeat writers of the second half of the 20th Century.

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Brautigan is one of my favorite writers, and poets. I think his writing is so quirky that it is probably an acquired taste, but I definitely got a taste for it, and I’m slowly reading my way through it all. The Octopus Frontier is not my favorite poetry book, but it is definitely not bad. It is very Brautigan which I think is very good. My favorite poems from it are The Sawmill, The Pumpkin Tide, Private Eye Lettuce, and the one I thought was best in the book was The Symbol:

When I was hitch-hiking down to Big Sur,
Moby Dick stopped and picked me up. He was driving
a truckload of sea gulls to San Luis Obispo.
"Do you like being a truckdriver better than you do a whale?" I asked.
"Yeah," Moby Dick said. "Hoffa is a lot better
to us whales than Captain Ahab ever was.
The old fart."

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Brautigan's 4th publication, now lost forever in individual copies, but most of the poems [excluding 5] are reprinted in his 'The Pill vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster' collection.

A continuing of the growth and development of Richard Brautigan as we know him now.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The further back you go in Brautigan's oeuvre, the less impressive the poetry is .