Product Description

Lee Mellon believes he is the descendent of the only Confederate General to have come from Big Sur and is himself a seeker after truth in his own modern-day war against the status quo and the state of the Union. This novel is set in 1957, and was the late Richard Brautigan's first to be published.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408285 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 153 pages

From the Back Cover
Jesse and Lee share a house owned by a very nice Chinese dentist, where it rains in the hall. They move to cabins on the cliffs at Big Sur where the deafening croaks of frogs can be temporarily silenced by the cry, 'Campbell's Soup'. Ultimately, we learn how the frogs are permanently silenced ... and dreams disperse around a fire into 186,000 endings per second.

In anticipating flower power and the ideals of the Sixties, Brautigan's debut novel was at least ten years before its time and remains a weird and brilliant classic.

Customer Reviews

Change Your Life And READ THIS!
This is one of the most outstanding novels to come out of the 50's/60's US counter cultures. Brautigan's honed down and poetic prose is a delight. This book really deserves more recognition for the influence it has had over a generation of writers.

For me it contains many truths about life and how to live it.

Read this, then read everything else by RB
Possibly Brautigan's most famous work, Confed Gen is a delightful introduction to one of America's finest writers. The wit and melancholy of his writing is hard to beat, and the wonderful style and energy of his so carefully constructed work invites reading of certain passages & metaphoric prose over and over. Buy this book. You will be astonished and delighted. Read his other works and you will be left with a sense of wonder and dismay that he is no longer with us. Then buy his daughter Ianthe's book about Richard - You can't catch death. It's the closest you'll get to getting to know the great man, and why there were bullet holes around the kitchen clock.

"Campbell's Soup!!!"
Looking for something brief to distract me from my not very riveting dissertation and flicking through an old copy of UNCUT, I came across the dependable reviews of recent author Nick Johnstone. Being a fan of Rebel Inc Press- such books as 'Ask the Dust', 'The Sinaloa Story', 'Ringolevio', 'Snowblind' and 'Stone Junction' I knew it had to be one of theirs I hadn;t read. I settled on this and 'Wait for Spring...' by John Fante (which I've yet to read). Thought I'd go with this one first, as the intro by Duncan MacLean is as great as all Rebel Inc intros and Johnstone's review pitched it on the same level as Kerouac's 'Big Sur' (his best work apart from 'Lonesome Traveler' and his Wolfe tribute 'The Town & The City') and the lyrics to Mark Eitzel's 'Wild Sea' (from '60 Watt Silver Lining'). MacLean also states in his introduction that it is hard to reconcile Brautigan's suicide with the bursting full of laugh and outright hilarious prose here. He's right.

The chapters are short and superb- anyone who liked Douglas Coupland's 'Life After God' will love this book. It tells us about Jesse and Lee- and their adventures that lead them to bars, to a Chinese dentist's flat and to Big Sur. That's where the frogs and alligators and teens and girls and tobacco and a whole lot more comes in.

I'll be heading for the Brautigan section soon to get the rest of his books. Rebel Inc have published another masterpiece that isn't heavily marketed f-grade Bret Easton Ellis ('Twelve') or d-standard Rushdie (who I think is appalling anyway)- 'White Teeth'. Hope they could publish Denis Johnson's 'Angels' or Rick Moody's 'Garden State'- both seemingly out of print. This is one book that you really must read etc etc- I'd rather be with Jesse and Lee in Big Sur than watching those twats on 'Big Brother'. Remember kids, use your time constructively. Me?- I'm out with the alligators...