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Richard Brautigan : A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and the Hawkline Monster (Three Books in the Manner of Their Original ed) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Brautigan
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy Used: $2.42
You Save: $15.53 (87%)
New (26) Used (40) from $2.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 132481
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0395547032
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 046442547031
EAN: 9780395547038
ASIN: 0395547032
Publication Date: February 4, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Good reading copy. May include highlighting/writing, some completed exercises, missing dust cover, crease, and/or overall wear. Ships within 2 business days. 100% Customer satisfaction guaranteed.
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Product Description
Richard Brautigan was the author of ten novels, including a contemporary classic, Trout Fishing in America, nine volumes of poetry, and a collection of stories.Here are three Brautigan novels--A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon and The Hawkline Monster--reissues in a one-volume omnibus edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 A hippie version of the Great Gatsby November 4, 2007
An episode of Rudy Maxa's "Smart Travels" devoted to San Francisco mentions that Angel Island was a fort during the Civil War. Why would San Francisco need a fort during in the Civil War? Rudy asks. Because, the park ranger tells him, the Confederate Army could have sent a ship into the Bay and up to Sacramento to seize the gold stored there.
Brautigan!
Maybe the premise of Brautigan's Big Sur novel wasn't as drug (or Red Mountain wine) induced as one might suspect. It's a sort of Great Gatsby for the hippie culture. The story's hero is Lee Mellon, descended from a Civil War general (or so Mellon claims). His ties to prestigious heritage are about as tenuous as Gatsby's.
The opening chapter details the exploits of the 8th Big Sur Volunteer Heavy Root Eaters at the Civil War skirmish known as the Battle of the Wilderness. Brautigan didn't dream this up! There really was a Battle of the Wilderness.
Brautigan obviously spent a lot of time in Big Sur hanging out with early hippies and counterculture types. As you read the story, it's easy to picture "those lonely stark mountains and clifflike beaches." Who knows, maybe Kerouac was there working on his Big Sur book (also worth reading). He mentions Henry Miller driving a Cadillac. There are sly references to William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Patchen, and Steinbeck (Big Sur is very much Steinbeck country).
Although the military theme is sustained through much of the book (A Daring Calvary Attack on PG&E, for example) the fiercest battles are waged against frogs.
When you buy this volume, you get Dreaming of Babylon and The Hawkline Monster thrown in as a bonus. These are novels for people who like to read for fun and enjoy stories that are simply silly. They are along the same lines as Brautigan's short story collection Revenge of the Lawn. If you liked Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House, chances are you will like these stories too.
 Cross genre omnibus November 1, 2007
These three novels, though very different in terms of both style and genre, satisfy most when read as a single tome. Brautigan's language is simple and direct, peppered with vivid images created by a unique turn of phrase or simple a contrast.
At times the language can be very elementary, even laughable (maybe a product of Brautigan's drug preferences and generation), but if the reader rides through the simple there awaits a warm reward.
A Modern Genius January 27, 2007
Brautigan was a poet and author who made his mark with the Beat Poets of the San Francisco North Beach (Barbary Coast), such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg. His style ranges from gritty and earthy to dreamlike and surreal. His sense of humour is incomparible. I strongly recommend this volume to start off with (even though "Dreaming Of Babylon" is not one of my favourites), since "A Confederate General In Big Sur" and "The Hawkline Monster" are excellent novels to begin your Brautigan jones with. :o) I would also highly recommend "In Watermelon Sugar," "Willard And His Bowling Trophies," and the collection "Trout Fishing In America." Enjoy! (You may thank me later.)
richard brautigan; thanks, fella. September 12, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
i have had many an enjoyable hour reading richard brautigan over my lifetime. if you have not read him, your life is a sham. all REAL lives must include some brautigan moments. i am not kidding about this at all. a confederate general from big sur, is probably my favorite, though i reread them all every five years or so. BUY SOME BRAUTIGAN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, YOU FOOL!
 Good, but not his best August 31, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was reading stuff on the Internet about Brautigan and someone said that if you like his stuff, you'll have to read everything you can get your hands on. That's me. There's three collections of his that have been released, each one with three books in it. Of those three collections, this is my least favorite.
CONFEDERATE GENERAL, is about two couples, including the narrator and Lee Mellon, a Confederate General who lost his shoes. The book is mostly about them drinking and getting high in a strange house in the middle of nowhere. The surreal house has glass walls and a pond where they keep frogs and alligators. They also have problems with people chopping down their trees. A strange man Lee Mellon once knew visits them. He is crazy. The story has six endings.
DREAMING OF BABYLON is the strangest P.I. novel you will ever read. Likewise, THE HAWKLINE MONSTER is a western, only in the loosest sense of the term. Even if you like Brautigan's writing (which apparently is pretty polarizing), it's hard to guess what anyone will make of these stories. I thought they were pretty cool, and unlike anything else ever, which is a good thing.
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