Thursday, February 12, 2009

Trout Fishing in America

Jumping Trout by Winslow Homer



For Theme Thursday I decided to post about the book Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan.

La La La ... off to the library and pick up a copy. On my way I stopped at an old friend's house and she decided to walk with me. It dawned on me at some point that she had introduced me to Brautigan's works many years ago! (Okay that was weird.)

"It would be interesting to re-read him now..." she said.

At the library there was only one Brautigan book -- An Unfortunate Woman, A Journey.


Inside were these notes. I didn't notice the mention of page 109, or I would have looked at it. I was in a hurry to take the picture, and leave. I should have taken the book out of the library, but I was still hoping to find a copy of Trout Fishing... at the bookstore. (No luck there either!) I don't know about you, but I think the first remarks were made by someone with a bug up her ass. Maybe it was my ninth grade English teacher... she always tried to ruin books for me before I had a chance to read them.

I love inconclusive fragments -- my whole life has been built on them.


Not page 109, but another page from the book, An Unfortunate Woman. I think I need to read it so I can remark on it myself. Maybe we should all read it, create a group remark, and I'll write it in and get a photo of it.


My fish post sort of fell through. And what about page 109? This post needs a sequel.

15 comments:

Kris McCracken said...

Why are the trout jumping?

Avid Reader said...

probably jumping for joy--something to do with sex.

Full Tilt said...

Okay, the joy of trout sex and fish sequals, what is the world coming to???

Avid,

I originally wanted to post using Trout Fishing by Brautigan, and had the same problem you encountered---no book in the library. I could have scurried over to my campus to look but that would have taken more time and energy that was available. You're right about the group read, the person with the buggy-assed remarks and possibly, the sequel. All things considered, however, this is a humorous posting.

Perhaps the crew at Theme Thursday will consider Fish: The Sequal for next time.

Check out my Fish verse---not nearly as entertaining as your posting!

Unknown said...

Very nice pictures and blog!

e said...

Avid,

Blogger has gone haywire, publishing my comment with a different name that I can't change...

I love the trout picture, too. If you don't like the Fish verse, try the post on reading above it. You were among my sources of inspiration!

Tom said...

it is nice to see a Winslow Homer painting that is not of a sailboat...and i like your idea of a page review...getting a bunch of people to read and review just a page has to be a lot easier than reading a 'whole' book!

Anonymous said...

Nice post, Avid. And maybe some English teacher did go through a few library books, just for the purpose of "correcting" them...

Coffee Messiah said...

I first read Watermelon Sugar and have wanted to go back and read both of these at some point.

Most people ask: Who's Richard Brautigan ; (

I like the comment sheet. Sounds like fun reads in themselves ; )

mouse (aka kimy) said...

trout fishing in america a book with one of the greatest first and last lines in modern american literature!

sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise.

Anonymous said...

Going to have to get me a copy now..curiosity aroused...

Ever read 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen?'

R.L. Bourges said...

so of course, after kimy's comment, I had to google up amazon and read the first line of Trout Fishing in America, right?

Trout steel. I like it.

I can see how getting to know a guy over a can of tomato soup and a conversation in the check-out line would lead to a lasting relationship of some - oh, couple of hours, or so.

(That one page on your blog and those few lines at Amazon now constitute my entire knowledge of Richard Brautigan.)

Megan said...

After all that, you absolutely MUST go back and take a picture of page 109!

And I am one of those who said (to self), who's richard brautigan? and is now going to go looking for this book. Good thing I was already planning on hitting the used bookstore today and better thing that I read this post before going!

Anonymous said...

Okay, that does it! I told myself a year or so ago the next time someone mentioned Brautigan to me out of the blue (or red, in this case) I would finally, FINALLY get off my literal and figurative duff and read "TFIA" As a child of the 60s it's just inexcusable that I haven't yet.

CocoDivaDog said...

Hi Avid,
Nice to meet you.
After seeing your pic of the trout, I remember one of my fav musical pieces: The Trout Quintet, I think by Schubert.
Speaking of fish, Grandson just walked in...with goldfish crackers!
Time to log off and try to steal some of his snack.
Good nite!

lettuce said...

i love the picture

jumping for the joy of sex. Well, why not?

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)