On "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan

Riffing and Spliffing

Like so much hippie culture circa its late 60s San Fran apex, you had to be there, man. Brautigan was a poet, a novelist, and a man of his milieu par excellence. (He allegedly despised hippies, but any self-respecting hippie would say that.) Has anyone ever tried to write a novel sustained by only a joke? Not a symbol or a metaphor, even, like Gogol’s Nose or Camus’ Plague—just the folksy phrase “trout fishing in America” transfigured into as many pseudo-meanings as time affords before the spliff burns out. Sometimes it’s a character, sometimes a call to action, sometimes a taunt taped to the back of schoolchildren. And at one point in the journey, in a joke I really didn’t understand, an excuse to lob some strays at Nelson Algren for a whole chapter. My mind kept drifting to the cover of the Captain Beefheart record Trout Mask Replica, and wondering what trout did to deserve this among avant West Coasters. But here’s the part that really baffles the mind in 2025: The book sold millions of copies. Sometimes vibes are all you need.

Trout Fishing in America
Author: Richard Brautigan
Pages: 112
Year: 1967
Genre: Fiction

Next: Bright Lights, Big City, by McInerney

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