SOURCE: Boyer, Jay. “Trout Fishing in America.” In Richard Brautigan, pp. 19-24. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1987.

In the following excerpt from his short study of Brautigan, Boyer discusses the ways in which Trout Fishing in America is an attempt to transcend reality through the use of the imagination.

Rendering experience in self-contained little sections, and relying upon the cumulative power of these sections for dramatic effect, would be a technique Brautigan would become identified with, but one he used to greatest advantage in his first novel, Trout Fishing in America. Like his stories and poems, each of these sections relies upon voice and tone and the appeal of the speaker for its charm. And there's often a “serial” quality to be found here as well. The degree to which we can appreciate what's going on has to do with how willing we are to allow the speaker...