Wednesday, 8 October 2008
A little at a time is probably the way to go when it comes to reading Brautigan because he's not the sort of writer who churns out page-turners that'll keep you awake till the small hours in an attempt to get to the end of the story.
Consider the plot line, such as it is, for A Confederate General From Big Sur, which recounts the bohemian adventures of the narrator and his friend Lee Mellon who claims to be a descendant of a Confederate general.
Needing a break from the beatnik life in San Francisco they travel to Big Sur where the narrator meets a girl and a troubled insurance salesman on the run from his family turns up, literally, on their doorstep. Apart from an incident where a couple of teenage kids attempt to steal some petrol from their car's gas tank, not much else happens.