The book comprises forty-seven "chapters," actually semi-autonomous prose poems or vignettes. There is no obvious narrative, and many critics have convincingly argued that such a book should not be called a novel at all. However, some commentators have shown that Trout Fishing in America is more purposeful than it seems at first.

Chapters can be grouped by setting — the North Beach area in San Francisco, the Pacific Northwest of the narrator's childhood, a series of trout streams visited on fishing trips — or linked by repeated images and motifs. Most importantly, the consistency of the narrator's voice and the strength of the central themes unify this novel. In contrast, the prose poems that compose Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970 (1971) stand as individual pieces.

In Trout Fishing in America Brautigan uses an abbreviated, simplistic prose that is enlivened by his striking use of metaphor. The result is...