![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
He put the box down and took one of the alligators out. The alligator was stunned to realise that he was not in the pet shop. He looked around for the puppies that had been in a wire cage next to his aquarium. The puppies were gone. The alligator wondered where the puppies were. Lee Mellon was holding the alligator in his hands.
"Hello, alligator!" Lee Mellon shouted. The alligator was still looking for the puppies. Where had they gone?
"You like frogs legs?" Lee Mellon shouted to the alligator and put the alligator carefully down into the pond. The alligator lay there stationary like a toy boat. Lee Mellon gave him a little push and the alligator sailed out into the pond.
First published in 1964, Richard Brautigan's first novel is an early example of American counter-culture literature. Lee Mellon (who believes one of his ancestor's was a Confederate general in the American Civil War), leaves San Francisco for a shack on the cliffs of Big Sur and Jesse (who narrates the story), soon follows him. They live from hand to mouth in a ramshackle hut with a ceiling so low that no-one can avoid banging their head, and persecuted by the noise of the frogs in the pond outside. Their downbeat but extremely funny adventures with girls, gasoline thieves, alligators and crazy businessman, drinking beer and smoking dope, are punctuated every now and then with flights of fancy like the one quoted above.
I had never heard of Richard Brautigan before receiving this book as an added extra with a book I requested from Title Trader, but I will be on the lookout for his other books now.
"Hello, alligator!" Lee Mellon shouted. The alligator was still looking for the puppies. Where had they gone?
"You like frogs legs?" Lee Mellon shouted to the alligator and put the alligator carefully down into the pond. The alligator lay there stationary like a toy boat. Lee Mellon gave him a little push and the alligator sailed out into the pond.
First published in 1964, Richard Brautigan's first novel is an early example of American counter-culture literature. Lee Mellon (who believes one of his ancestor's was a Confederate general in the American Civil War), leaves San Francisco for a shack on the cliffs of Big Sur and Jesse (who narrates the story), soon follows him. They live from hand to mouth in a ramshackle hut with a ceiling so low that no-one can avoid banging their head, and persecuted by the noise of the frogs in the pond outside. Their downbeat but extremely funny adventures with girls, gasoline thieves, alligators and crazy businessman, drinking beer and smoking dope, are punctuated every now and then with flights of fancy like the one quoted above.
I had never heard of Richard Brautigan before receiving this book as an added extra with a book I requested from Title Trader, but I will be on the lookout for his other books now.
