Dreaming of Babylon: A Private Eye Novel 1942

by Richard Brautigan

Paperback, 2017

Library's rating

Publication

Canongate Canons (2017), Editie: Main - Canons edition, 192 pagina's

ISBN

9781786890450

Language

Collection

Description

It is early 1942. You are in San Francisco, and you need a private eye. Sam Spade is rumored to be in Istanbul. The Continental Op has been drafted and is a sergeant in the Aleutians. Philip Marlowe is up at Little Fawn Lake investigating the disappearance of Mrs. Derace Kingsley. Lew Archer is in the army. Who's left? Nobody but C. Card. You haven't heard of C. Card? That's all right. Nobody has. When you hire C. Card, the hero of Richard Brautigan's eighth novel, you have scraped the bottom of the private-eye barrel. But you won't be bored. No, indeed. Because when C. Card finds some bullets for his gun, you will be in for some fast, funny, slam-bang private eye adventures. Unless of course C. Card starts dreaming of Babylon. If C. Card starts dreaming of Babylon, all bets are off. Not since Trout Fishing in America has Brautigan so successfully combined his wild sense of humor with the incredible poetic imagination he is rightfully famous for around the world. The adventures of seedy, not-too-bright C. Card, as he carefully wends his way between fantasy and reality, Babylon and San Francisco, are a delight to both the mind and the heart.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member comfypants
It's not his best, but it's fun and funny, similar to Hawkline Monster in that it spoofs a pulp genre. Atypical for Brautigan, it involves suspense, which makes for a[n even] faster read, but takes away what I really like about Brautigan: with typical good books, you think, "Oh, I liked that, let's
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see what happens next;" with Brautigan, you think, "Oh, I liked that, let's go back and read it again" (bad for publishers, good for people who want an excuse to keep books they've already read).
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LibraryThing member iatethecloudsforyou
been a while since i read this...im surprised by so many people disliking brautigan. ive checked out several of the libraries and sent them hate notes.
best detective novel ever.
LibraryThing member Sativa
one of the more focused stories i've read of brautigan's. it's sort of hard to really pinpoint a main plot in brautigan's work. it's so 'out there' it's an exercise just to experience it at times, never mind try to figure it out!
however, this novel is basically about the life of a private detective
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with the misfortune of being unable to stop himself from daydreaming. i enjoyed it.
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Original publication date

1977
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