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A review by samantha_duncan
Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan by William Hjortsberg
4.0
I have mixed feelings on Hjortsberg's Brautigan biography. Some of the general consensus appears to be that it's far too exhaustive in its detail, noting things like how much Brautigan paid for a room at a hotel or meal in a restaurant. Such detail brings the book to 800+ pages, a seeming irony, given the short, somewhat minimalist nature of Brautigan's work.
Delving into the biography, however, one learns of Brautigan's own obsession with details (he constantly kept written lists and records of his career, personal life, etc.), and in that regard, Hjortsberg's inclusion of a similar detailed record makes sense. The first chapter alone, which recounts the story of Brautigan's suicide, is shocking because of the detail provided. What follows it is a winding journey through the writer's hits and misses, loves and losses, and high and low points. As a writer, I specifically appreciated a lot of the details of Brautigan's early efforts to get published, though I can see how that might bore someone who doesn't write.
This was, overall, an enjoyable read for me. I held off on giving it five stars, however, because I found myself getting hung up on the more technical elements of the book. Hjortsberg doesn't cite anything internally, and there were a handful of stories that had me wondering how he obtained them - anecdotes that involved only Brautigan or Brautigan and a random passerby, stories Hjortsberg would only know if he'd heard them from Brautigan himself. Instead of stating that somehow in the book, we're supposed to just believe what Hjortsberg says to be truth. There's an extensive (and impressive) works cited list in the back of the book, but footnotes in the text would have been nice, for the several times where I wondered how the author got his information.
A frequent point of confusion is Hjortsberg's use of first and last names when referring to a character in the story. The cast is large, many showing up sporadically, and when he uses a person's first name in one sentence and their last name in the next, I sometimes had to pause and retrace the paragraph to clarify who he was talking about. Last name only would have been a lot clearer, with so many people appearing in minor roles.
Other technical hangups are minor - the book is littered with typos, and the author tends to switch back and forth between writing about himself in first and third person (I can't imagine how odd it must be to insert yourself into a biography in third person, but when he does it, he does it objectively well). These are things I can get past, and things I want to get past, because really, this is a work of magnificent scope, covering the life of a man and his impression on American literature (there's a lot of great writing about the rise of the Beat and hippie movements, as well).
I have a lot of appreciation for a writer who does extensive research. Hjortsberg spent twenty years researching Brautigan, and the result is an impressive journey of a book that will keep most readers' attention. Aside from the lack of citing from the research (and maybe others can get past that), this is a great ride for Brautigan fans and for writers in general.
Delving into the biography, however, one learns of Brautigan's own obsession with details (he constantly kept written lists and records of his career, personal life, etc.), and in that regard, Hjortsberg's inclusion of a similar detailed record makes sense. The first chapter alone, which recounts the story of Brautigan's suicide, is shocking because of the detail provided. What follows it is a winding journey through the writer's hits and misses, loves and losses, and high and low points. As a writer, I specifically appreciated a lot of the details of Brautigan's early efforts to get published, though I can see how that might bore someone who doesn't write.
This was, overall, an enjoyable read for me. I held off on giving it five stars, however, because I found myself getting hung up on the more technical elements of the book. Hjortsberg doesn't cite anything internally, and there were a handful of stories that had me wondering how he obtained them - anecdotes that involved only Brautigan or Brautigan and a random passerby, stories Hjortsberg would only know if he'd heard them from Brautigan himself. Instead of stating that somehow in the book, we're supposed to just believe what Hjortsberg says to be truth. There's an extensive (and impressive) works cited list in the back of the book, but footnotes in the text would have been nice, for the several times where I wondered how the author got his information.
A frequent point of confusion is Hjortsberg's use of first and last names when referring to a character in the story. The cast is large, many showing up sporadically, and when he uses a person's first name in one sentence and their last name in the next, I sometimes had to pause and retrace the paragraph to clarify who he was talking about. Last name only would have been a lot clearer, with so many people appearing in minor roles.
Other technical hangups are minor - the book is littered with typos, and the author tends to switch back and forth between writing about himself in first and third person (I can't imagine how odd it must be to insert yourself into a biography in third person, but when he does it, he does it objectively well). These are things I can get past, and things I want to get past, because really, this is a work of magnificent scope, covering the life of a man and his impression on American literature (there's a lot of great writing about the rise of the Beat and hippie movements, as well).
I have a lot of appreciation for a writer who does extensive research. Hjortsberg spent twenty years researching Brautigan, and the result is an impressive journey of a book that will keep most readers' attention. Aside from the lack of citing from the research (and maybe others can get past that), this is a great ride for Brautigan fans and for writers in general.