In Watermelon Sugar
by Richard Brautigan
rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️& 1/2⭐️
genre: postmodernism, post-apocalyptic sci-fi
era: the contemporary period (1968)
pov: the main character (we don’t know his name) is the narrator; first person
summary: “in watermelon sugar” tells a story of a compound commune. a place where the line between indoors and outdoors is erased. a place where the sun shines in different colours everyday. a place where almost everything is made out of watermelon. the narrator, our protagonist is nameless... he gives us the option to name him ourselves. in watermelon sugar, life is simple and carefree. but our nameless hero has to deal with some complications that strike him during his peaceful life in the community.
richard brautigan: his career has begun in the mid-fifties in San Francisco, Ca. he moved there as a nineteen year old and became a part of the local literary circles very quickly. although he claimed to not be involved with the beats and their movement, his first poems where published in a beatnik journal and he even participed in poetry readings at famous beat gatherings.
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SPOILER FREE
my review: i read this one the first week of quarantine which kind of ironically is very fitting thanks to our almost “apocalyptic” pandemic. i personally felt very intrigued by this book and how unexplainable it was. this piece was very exciting but at the same time EXTREMELY confusing... so beware. you have to be open minded and willing to spend a day reading this mess. you either love it or hate it, there’s no in between. i got my hands on this book because of harry styles (yes, im sorry) but i’m so glad i did. i interpreted it as a group of brainwashed people who survived some sort of apocalyptic event are living in a gated commune. the younger members seemed more trusting than the elderly which i found very interesting. in my head, they’re still being controlled by someone of higher position. let me explain, if you teach a group of children that a zebra🦓 is actually a tiger 🐅 and won’t let them be in contact with people who know the truth, they won’t know they’re being lied to and that this 🦓 isn’t a tiger. the post-apocalyptic garden of Eden, where everything is perfect, sounds fishy, doesn’t it? it seems very acid-like... i’ve read a thesis about this book that has changed my view of this book quite a bit... i also would liken this book to an lsd trip. let me explain... have you heard the song lucy in the skies with diamonds by the beatles? well the book is exactly like that song. different coloured sun, indoors and outdoors diffuse into each other, animals talking, clothes made out of watermelon? to me, that sounds a lot like an lsd vision (not that i’ve experienced one! :D) nevertheless i recommend this book (to anyone who wants to acid trip but doesn’t want to get involved with drugs). jokes aside i loved it a lot and if you like beatnik literature and hippie music, i promise you will too.
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“Perhaps you stared into a river. There was somebody near you who loved you. They were about to touch you. You could feel this before it happened. Then it happened. That is my name.”
