- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Rebel inc.; New edition edition (2 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841951374
- ISBN-13: 978-1841951379
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,239,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Concerns a writer trying to cope with the break-up of a relationship. Trying to escape his misery, he begins a story about a sombrero that falls out of the sky and lands in a small town. Unable to concentrate he throws the pages in the bin, and that's when it starts to take on a life of its own.
From the Back Cover
"Brautigan was an absolute original who found cause for celebration in the most unlikely places." The Guardian.
"Some days he cried so much that he thought he was dreaming."
A well known American humourist (with every bookshop carrying at least one of his titles), sits at his typewriter and starts to write a story - A sombrero falls out of the sky, from nowhere, and for no apparent reason. The Mayor, the Mayor's cousin and an unemployed man discuss and cry at this happening.
The American humourist then pulls the paper from the machine and tears it into small pieces. And cries.
Sombrero Fallout is two stories running concurrently, one is the story that takes on its own life, of the mysterious sombrero, and the other, the humourist's desperate loss of the love of the Japanese woman with beautiful hair.
Originally published in 1976, Sombrero Fallout is painfully bitter and ridiculously humorous, Brautigan's metaphors are still fresh and insightful, and the depth created is hugely impressive.
Richard Brautigan was born in 1935 in Tacoma, Washington. After a dreadful childhood, which included a stay in a mental institution, he headed for San Francisco to write poetry. There he met fellow writers and artists who were to become the Beats, whose style and countercultural attitude was to inspire and deeply affect an entire generation.
He wrote ten novels and nine volumes of poetry and many people consider his surreal, hilarious novels and poems to be among the very best of Beat literature.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sombrero Fallout is a truly origional book. The story starts with an author who is devastated at having just been dumped by his beautiful Japanese girlfriend. He tries to write a story about a Sombrero that falls out of the sky but he is too sad and begins crying and throws the crumpled piece of paper into his bin. However, the story about the sombrero decides to go on without him in his wastepaper basket while he pines away for his ex. As we read this book we are told by Brautigan not only about the author and his despair for his lost love, but about the story of the sombrero falling out of the sky and the havoc it brings. These two stories occur simultaneously in alternating chapters, which in pure Brautigan style, are only a few pages long each.
This book is funny (how often does a sombrero fall out of the sky and wreak havoc where you live?), sad, and at times disturbing. It is also very truthful. Anyone who has ever had their heart broken will relate to the author who becomes obsessed with his Japanese ex and desperately searches his house for a strand of her hair, that finding something left of her in his life becomes the most impoortant thing in the world to him.
This book is written in Brautigan's unique style. Short sentences, a sequence of words that roll of the tongue in the most beautiful way.
Anyone who has read Brautigan will love this book and anyone who hasn't, should.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An American humorist who doesn't have a sense of humour, just heartache and lament for a lost love. A simple story about an unusual event - a unidentified fallen sombrero - that becomes unleashed into chaos. These two parallel stories hold you entranced from the first page (the only time they ever actually meet). His prose often runs like poetry. His characters are so endearing, in all their neurotic splendour, and I can't help but think that his hero has an autobiographical edge . I truly love this book and have done since I first read it ten years ago. I'm delighted it has been re-published - no more trawling through flea markets in a vain hope of chancing an old copy - and I highly recommend it to anyone with an appreciation of absurd with soul. This is one that you'll want to share with others ... and own forever.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Richard Brautigan wrote beautiful books, of which this is one of the best; honest, real, tormented, fantastic, witty, visionary. I was saddened to hear of his apparent suicide in 1984. It adds poignancy to re-reading this book, as I realise now just how much of himself may be in it. May he rest in peace.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The best of Brautigan's books
I've read some other novels by Brautigan before, like Trout Fishing in America or Watermelon Sugar, and I have to say that in spite of the fact that I loved the style and the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mig
My favourite book of all time
I can't recommend this book more, it is fantantic, sureal, and just wonderful. As a massive reader (I'm 42 and have been reading 60-200 books per year of all genres except the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by helen reader
a funny take on humanity
Sombrero Fallout is an excellent book detailing the chaos which in engulfs a small town-when the aforementioned sombrero falls- and the grows to a crisis or worldly proportions. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2007 by Mr. A. Richardson
Read this book
You should read this book. Sombrero Fallout is a beautiful and unusual book. I cried and I laughed at parts of this book. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2000
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