Product Description

This novel concerns an American humorist who is struggling to come to terms with the break-up of a relationship. He tries to write, but he cannot. A failed attempt ends up in the rubbish bin. At the same time as we are told of his break-up, the story in the bin forms a life of its own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #944009 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

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.

Customer Reviews

If you aren't already a fan, you will be after reading this!
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.

It's a hard decision but...I think this is my favourite book
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.

A kaleidoscope of desperation
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.