The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western

Don't let your children near this trash.

It was over 25 years ago I read 'the Hawkline Monster', and -like 'Jitterbug Perfume' by Tom Robbins- it has 'haunted' me all these years, years filled with reading hundreds and hundreds of other books from classics to sci fi to suspense to fantasys, each trying to out do the last with inventiveness and quirks. Yet despite the strength of many of them, even today the Hawkline Monster always nonchalantly steps through with a memory unique and all its own. I am looking for another copy now - the last mysteriously disappeared long ago. I can't wait!

I first read this book in the '70s, shortly after it was published, and have re-read it several times. Of the four or five Brautigan novels I've read, The Hawkline Monster is my favorite; it has a goofy, Twiliight Zone-ish quality that just makes it fun to read. If you like stories that are off the beaten path, this one's for you!

Brautigan brings his trademark mixture of sex, violence, and absurdity to the western genre, and the result is a wonderful, if quick, read. Like so much of Brautigan, this book ends just when you're really enjoying it. The prose is casual and easygoing, the characters drawn with just enough ink to give them character. The plot is a tremendously goofy good time. And, of all the crazy things, a happy ending! Read it, it's loads of fun.

If Salvatore Dali, Erik Satie, Ernest Hemingway, The Marx Brothers, Edgar Allan Poe and Sam Peckinpah ever collaborated on a work of brilliant eccentricity, then Richard Brautigan's bizarre, playful and throughouly entertaining novel The Hawkline Monster could have resulted from such a marriage made in surrealist heaven.As the subtitle suggests, The Hawkline Monster is a gothic western loosely set at the turn of the twentieth century near The Dalles Oregon. It concerns two moronic hit men cut of silent film comedy cloth, a set of spinster twins harboring deep sexual desire, an aged "Lurch" like butler and an "Id" monster of imagined horror. And this is just scratching the surface of Brautigan's finest novel.Brautigan is an aquired taste. One can easily apply the adjectives "elliptical", "ambigious" and "pretentious" when describing his work. Granted too, the short story and the poem were always his strongest format. But Brautigan is never boring. His prose while fearless if a bit reckless never fails to paint unique images. Yes, while it is true that Brautigan frequently comes off as a prepubescent boy writing to stimulate his bubbling loins, he does balance it with a sincere ability to turn a phrase and capture a moment that could only exist in a fevered imagination. Brautigan was a unique voice now tragically silent. It also passes a unique piece of criteria I have for any good book. It has to be read. This book is not filmable in any way. Thank God for that. Far too often, authors write with lucrative film rights dancing in their eyes. It is sad, yet strangely fortunate that Brautigan died before major prepackaged film deals completely nearly crippled the written word.For those who enjoy taking literary risks without any guarantees, The Hawkline Monster comes highly reccomended. It is a fun, haunting and one of a kind way to spend a dark and stormy weekend.

One of Brautigan's best! A very funny and entertaining piece of literature.I can't for the life of me figure out why his books are out of print! As anyone who is familiar with any of Brautigan's work will attest /the man was a Genius! Hawkline monster will keep you entertained from start to finish.