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4th out of 62 books
—
37 voters
The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western
The time is 1902, the setting eastern Oregon. Magic Child, a fifteen-year-old Indian girl, wanders into the wrong whorehouse looking for the right men to kill the monster that lives in the ice caves under the basement of Miss Hawkline's yellow house. What follows is a series of wild, witty, and bizarre encounters. The book was originally published in 1974.
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
September 15th 1975
by Touchstone
(first published January 1st 1974)
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i am willing to give second chances.
even if i am angered or bewildered or heartbroken, i am always willing to take stock of circumstances, offer up the opportunity for redemption, and allow someone back into the warmth of my heart. we should all be as emotionally charitable as me. just don't fuck up a second time.
i read this brautigan novel with trepidation. that motherfucker burned me before.
are you distressed that i have already used variants of the word "fuck" twice in the first fifty or so...more
even if i am angered or bewildered or heartbroken, i am always willing to take stock of circumstances, offer up the opportunity for redemption, and allow someone back into the warmth of my heart. we should all be as emotionally charitable as me. just don't fuck up a second time.
i read this brautigan novel with trepidation. that motherfucker burned me before.
are you distressed that i have already used variants of the word "fuck" twice in the first fifty or so...more
The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A Gothic Western
'This sure is a weird place,' Greer said.
'It ain't any weirder that Hawaii,' Cameron said.
As it turned out, Cameron was wrong.
Blurb: It is the beginning of the 20th century. A huge yellow house stands in a field of frost in the Dead Hills of East Oregon. In the basement of the house are The Chemicals.
The Chemicals were Professor Hawkline's lifework - but the Professor has disappeared and his lifework must be com...more
My first experience with Richard Brautigan was not a positive one. I disliked A Confederate General from Big Sur. Karen a similar bad Brautigan reaction to her first book, but she was convinced to give him another try with this book, and I was given the task of taking it out of the library for her. She read it and gave it four stars. Since it's my job to return it to the library, and because she asked me to, I give Brautigan a second chance.
It was ok. I found it enjoyable and it read quickly a...more
It was ok. I found it enjoyable and it read quickly a...more
May 06, 2012
Jacob J.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012,
weird-westerns
A Gothic Western?
Really? Pretentious much? What were you Brautigan, one of those writers who said ‘I write so-and-so books, but with a so-and-so twist’? I mean, seriously, give us a bre — oh! Hey, so yeah, a gothic western. Spot on. Who knew one could be so apt in labeling their work. My apologies. Well done.
Having A Go at One of Those Superficially Clever, Show-offy-but-in-reality-rather-hokey-and-stilted-and-at-bottom-irrelevent Mash-up Comparative Descriptions That Critics Tend to Enjoy Imple...more
Really? Pretentious much? What were you Brautigan, one of those writers who said ‘I write so-and-so books, but with a so-and-so twist’? I mean, seriously, give us a bre — oh! Hey, so yeah, a gothic western. Spot on. Who knew one could be so apt in labeling their work. My apologies. Well done.
Having A Go at One of Those Superficially Clever, Show-offy-but-in-reality-rather-hokey-and-stilted-and-at-bottom-irrelevent Mash-up Comparative Descriptions That Critics Tend to Enjoy Imple...more
The Hawkline Monster Blues
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Thud Whack Ping.
Thud Whack Ping.
Thud Whack Ping.
Thud Whack Ping.
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
(view spoiler)
La da da-da-da da.
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
Thud Whack Ping.
La da-da-da Da.
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
Thud Whack Ping.
Said, LA DA DA-DA-DA DA!
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
Thud Whack Ping.
LA DA-DA-DA DA!
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
Thud Whack Ping. rest.
LA DA DA-DA-DA DA DA...
rest.
LA-DA DA DA DA DA.
Thud Whack Ping....more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I read this book in its entirety on a cold and rainy Thursday morning, and if I didn't still have the book sitting on my floor, I'd swear the entire experience was a dream. A bleak, crazy, hilarious dream.
Brautigan writes in a deceptively simple style, almost like a young adult novel, but make no mistake, this is not a story for kids. It follows the dream logic of a YA fantasy, but the rest of the content is clearly adult. In fact, one of the things I love most about this book is that it's clear...more
Brautigan writes in a deceptively simple style, almost like a young adult novel, but make no mistake, this is not a story for kids. It follows the dream logic of a YA fantasy, but the rest of the content is clearly adult. In fact, one of the things I love most about this book is that it's clear...more
Well, this is a really really bad 'novel'. I wouldn't ever have finished it if it weren't written by Brautigan. But because Brautigan wrote it I don't particularly mind the shitty parts and rather focus on the small things. There are some really nice passages, take a look at these:
The road was very bleak, wandering like the handwriting of a dying person over the hills. There were no houses, no barns, no fences, no signs that human life had ever made its way this far except for the road which was...more
The road was very bleak, wandering like the handwriting of a dying person over the hills. There were no houses, no barns, no fences, no signs that human life had ever made its way this far except for the road which was...more
At this point in his career, Brautigan was clearly succumbing to the effects of alcoholism and ego -- some things that were altogether absent in his earlier works. He had begun a project to create five novels within a five year span, each of which would blend two separate genres into a "new" sort of production. Before this novel he had produced The Abortion: An Historical Romance blending the romance novel form with the modern. This text attempts to blend the Gothic form with the Western. Unfor...more
This one was recommended to me by a friend of mine, and I'm glad I took him up on the offer.
This is one of the most bizarre and odd tales I've read in awhile--and most of that has to do with Brautigan's voice. His writing style both entertained and--sometimes--annoyed me with his gross amount of repetitions and vague details. However, I couldn't stop reading the thing. Not for want of needing to find out the ending or even because I cared about the characters, but simply because this is--again--...more
This is one of the most bizarre and odd tales I've read in awhile--and most of that has to do with Brautigan's voice. His writing style both entertained and--sometimes--annoyed me with his gross amount of repetitions and vague details. However, I couldn't stop reading the thing. Not for want of needing to find out the ending or even because I cared about the characters, but simply because this is--again--...more
A miniscule, oddball masterpiece. Essentially functioning as one extended deadpan joke, "The Hawkline Monster" is a strange story told straightforwardly. Structured in Brautigan's characteristic fragmentary chapters (which average about two pages and sometimes contain little more than one singular thought), the plot begins with contract killers Greer and Cameron being approached by a stranger named Magic Child. She has a job for them: come to Hawkline Manor, a house in eastern Oregon but near no...more
Well.. maybe giving this a 4 star rating is too much but it's hard for me to be so middle-of-the-road-ish about a writer that I do, indeed, like - who committed suicide. It wd seem like a disservice.
When I was a teenager still in high school there were several writers who my peers & I were reading w/ a particular avidity: Brautigan, Kahil Gibran, Herman Hesse, Antoine de Saint-Exupéray, & Kurt Vonnegut being perhaps at the forefront. Maybe they were all writers who addressed spiritual q...more
When I was a teenager still in high school there were several writers who my peers & I were reading w/ a particular avidity: Brautigan, Kahil Gibran, Herman Hesse, Antoine de Saint-Exupéray, & Kurt Vonnegut being perhaps at the forefront. Maybe they were all writers who addressed spiritual q...more
The Hawkline Monster started exceptionally well. It was all sardonic western, with one of the best cowboy double acts you're likely to encounter: Greer and Cameron "both looked about the same except they had different features and different builds." All was good, and I was willing to bet that I would be reading as much as I could of Brautigan as qucikly as possible. I really do want to emphasise just how much I was enjoying this book (a lot).
And then it got weird. I kinda thought it would get we...more
And then it got weird. I kinda thought it would get we...more
My first exposure to Brautigan, although I have one of his trilogy collections in my stack. I wasnt ready to dig into that so when I came across this little volume I snatched it up. A very light read, its only about 150 pages or so and Brautigan uses a very minimalist, trimmed down language in this dark story. You could easily put this down in half a day. Not only does this style make it extremely easy to read, it aptly sets the mood for the story through the eyes of the stark, simple, no-nonsen...more
I decided to re-visit Richard Brautigan’s The Hawkline Monster after first reading it a few years ago. I love the dry humour, and the plain, no-frills style of storytelling. It often reminded me of Larry McMurtry’s Western stories. The writing is so simple in its execution, it seems like a book anyone could have written, but that’s the beauty of it. I’m sure Brautigan’s bizzarro imaginings and dead pan humour would be a lot harder to replicate than one might think.
The story concerns two killers...more
The story concerns two killers...more
This may be insane, but this book gave me nightmares. This is entirely out of scale with the tone of this thing, which is one of those 70s cheeky monkey deals about genre and whatnot. But. I have some serious issues with threats to autonomy, the kind one can find in Through the Looking Glass and similar, so, nightmares ensued.
The one I remember best is about a giant blue square coming to kill me. The dream happened when I was a teenager, and living at home. The square could make me change my min...more
The one I remember best is about a giant blue square coming to kill me. The dream happened when I was a teenager, and living at home. The square could make me change my min...more
Brautigan was one of my husband's long-ago favorite authors, so I bought this one for him. He read it (again)recently and encouraged me to try it.
It spoofs the traditional Western as well as the classic horror tale, so it's fun. I think I'll try more Brautigan as a result of reading this one.
It spoofs the traditional Western as well as the classic horror tale, so it's fun. I think I'll try more Brautigan as a result of reading this one.
When reading Brautigan I just never know what's going to happen and when it happens I'm never sure what it is and sometimes things happen when I'm not reading the book because when I come back to the book it's different and I'm usually hungry.
Greer and Cameron, the man who counts, are wild west men. They're hired killers. So an Indian girl, Magic Child, hires them to kill a monster and in the process they fornicate a lot, drink tea, bury a dwarf, and set an elephant foot free. Really. This all h...more
Greer and Cameron, the man who counts, are wild west men. They're hired killers. So an Indian girl, Magic Child, hires them to kill a monster and in the process they fornicate a lot, drink tea, bury a dwarf, and set an elephant foot free. Really. This all h...more
The bottom line here is that I really want an elephant foot umbrella holder.
This is another of Brautigan's parodies and is more absurdist than, say, Dreaming of Babylon and The Abortion. It's a good ride, though, if you suspend any concept of reality you may have and sort of let the story take you along. There are many darkly comic elements throughout - on one end of the spectrum, you have the Frankenstein-ian tale of the monster overtaking its creator, while on the other end, you've got two cow...more
This is another of Brautigan's parodies and is more absurdist than, say, Dreaming of Babylon and The Abortion. It's a good ride, though, if you suspend any concept of reality you may have and sort of let the story take you along. There are many darkly comic elements throughout - on one end of the spectrum, you have the Frankenstein-ian tale of the monster overtaking its creator, while on the other end, you've got two cow...more
داستان هیولای هاوکلاین داستانی است که به گفته ی حسین نوش آذر به حقیقت داستان وفادار بوده و این ویژگی برای داستانی از براتیگان یک معیار خارق العاده است
داستان سرشار از نماد هایی است که طور بسیار زیرکانه به کار گرفته شده، هیولایی که گاه جای عقل می نشیند و گاه جای جهل، این هیولا جاهایی نمادی از ذهن است که وقتی با الکل حل می شود تنها موجب مستی نمی شود بل که موجب هشتاری یا دمیدن روح در جسم خدمتکار می شود. خوابیده را بیدار و تلسم شده را از سحر می رهاند.
نمی توانم بگویم بهترین اثر براتیگان بل که شایسته ا...more
داستان سرشار از نماد هایی است که طور بسیار زیرکانه به کار گرفته شده، هیولایی که گاه جای عقل می نشیند و گاه جای جهل، این هیولا جاهایی نمادی از ذهن است که وقتی با الکل حل می شود تنها موجب مستی نمی شود بل که موجب هشتاری یا دمیدن روح در جسم خدمتکار می شود. خوابیده را بیدار و تلسم شده را از سحر می رهاند.
نمی توانم بگویم بهترین اثر براتیگان بل که شایسته ا...more
This story is simple and strange; the real appeal is the word jazz. It's plain ol' fun to read. Minimalist Tom Robbins. Perhaps where Brautigan is a little trio, Robbins is a big band. Of course, Brautigan was earlier.
Some reviews here complain about Brautigan's vague descriptions and pointless repetitions. Those are exactly what appeal to me - it's how I experience the world, with some detalis quite unclear yet nonetheless quite present, and seemingly inconsequential fragments intruding again...more
Some reviews here complain about Brautigan's vague descriptions and pointless repetitions. Those are exactly what appeal to me - it's how I experience the world, with some detalis quite unclear yet nonetheless quite present, and seemingly inconsequential fragments intruding again...more
Jul 13, 2011
Sarah Beth
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Sarah Beth by:
the author photo
Shelves:
science-fiction,
dinger-recommends
Unbelievable. All I thought was, when can I read this again? Brautigan may have been crazy, but his writing is concise and simple - counteracting the weirdness of his story.
Really can't start describing how much fun this Novel is.
as much as i love 'trout fishing in america' and his other works, 'the hawkline monster' is easily brautigan's masterpiece. cool, lean prose tell a horror story that subverts genre and expectation: decades before modern writers and film directors now get lauded for achieving a fraction of what brautigan does here. i'm feeling that wonderful electric feeling that comes from finishing and contemplating a book that you are utterly aware will be a sacred text for the rest of your life. this just mad...more
nobody writes like brautigan! absolutely nobody! if you haven't read him, i recommend you start. i won't waste time with a synopsis. most of his stories defy description. you have to experience them and see for yourself. his style of counter-culture literature was a mainstay of the psychodelic literary diet of the '60s and serves as an influence base of some of the recent bizarro fiction of recent times. suffice to say this is not the typical gothic western. sure there are some gun-slinging outl...more
My dad gave me this book to read; since I know how disappointed I am when people don't read my offerings, I worked my way through it. It is funny and a quick read. But it's a crazy plot with crazy characters which makes sense since Brautigan was crazy (he really was). There is a line from one of the characters and it almost felt like it was a direct line from the author himself referencing his own psychological woes.
I found the idea of this book to be better than the execution: a Gothic Western? How amazing could that be? But, some fantastically written descriptions aside, the work itself seemed somewhat flat and flavorless. As an introduction to Brautigan, it was underwhelming. I'm not quite sure why this guy has so many slavish fans - maybe I'm missing a key element. Don't know if I'll bother reading any others.
This is one strange book! The main cowboy characters are a misfit comic pairing and they bounce off one another surrealy. Odd things happen, emotionally complex monsters appear and so on.
I can't remember it all but do remember a floating spirit/monster, a comic episode around a shot-gun (does someone get a hole in the head) and chapters that floated in and out of one another. Unreproducable!
I can't remember it all but do remember a floating spirit/monster, a comic episode around a shot-gun (does someone get a hole in the head) and chapters that floated in and out of one another. Unreproducable!
Jul 02, 2009
Maureen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Maureen by:
Ben Loory
a phenomenal book i keep carrying around with me and dipping into over and over again. i read it twice the first time i read it which is always the hallmark of my great favourites.
the simple story really sort of sketches in a lovely series of scenes that play out in a matter of fact way that always hints at poetry, and engages my imagination so that i can see everything so vividly. i love everything about these characters: they are so real to me, natural and uttterly charming.
though it's suppose...more
the simple story really sort of sketches in a lovely series of scenes that play out in a matter of fact way that always hints at poetry, and engages my imagination so that i can see everything so vividly. i love everything about these characters: they are so real to me, natural and uttterly charming.
though it's suppose...more
It's been 30 years since I read any Brautigan - with whom I used to ride the bus every day into downtown SF from out in the avenues in the early 1970s - and I'm sorry to say this one didn't live up to the high standards of Trout Fishing in America or A Confederate General from Big Sur, etc. Some funny moments, but all in all a weird science-fictiony short novel.
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Richard Brautigan was a 20th century American writer. His novels and stories often have to do with black comedy, parody, satire, and Zen Buddhism. He is probably best known for his novel Trout Fishing in America. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1984.
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“The voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii had been the most terrifying experience Greer and Cameron had ever gone through, even more terrible than the time they shot a deputy sheriff in Idaho ten times and he wouldn't die and Greer finally
had to say to the deputy sheriff,
"Please die because we don't want to
shoot you again".
And the deputy sheriff had said, "Ok, I'll die, but don't shoot me again".
"We won't shoot you again", Cameron had said.
"Ok, I'm dead", and he was.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
had to say to the deputy sheriff,
"Please die because we don't want to
shoot you again".
And the deputy sheriff had said, "Ok, I'll die, but don't shoot me again".
"We won't shoot you again", Cameron had said.
"Ok, I'm dead", and he was.”
Sep 27, 2011 08:29am
Dec 09, 2011 07:40am