Book - BookDetective

Name: The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster

Author: Richard Brautigan
Year: 1968
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Genres/categories:
Politics, Poetry, Fiction

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ISBNs:
9780440369561
0440369568

"The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster" is a poetry collection. Brautigan's style is often surreal, often tender, with touches of witty humor. The poems are written in a straightforward free verse. Here's an example of his style from "The Chinese Checker Players": "When I was six years old/I played Chinese checkers/with a woman/who was ninety-three years old." Recurrent themes in the book include love, sex, loss & loneliness. Incorporated is an intriguing mix of pop & high culture reference: Jefferson Airplane, Ophelia, the NY Yankees, John Donne etc. The book is often earthy. He writes about such topics as his own penis or a fart's smell. Memorable poems include: "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," sf vision of a "cybernetic meadow"; the open-ended "Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4"; "Discovery," a joyful poem about sexual intimacy; the surreal "The Pumpkin Tide"; the funny, haiku-like "November 3" & "A Good-Talking Candle," which invites readers into altered states of perception.
Although most of the poems are very short, there is one longer poem: the 9-part, 9-page "Galilee Hitchhiker," which chronicles the surreal adventures of Baudelaire (he opens an unconventional hamburger stand in SanFrancisco etc). If you only know Brautigan from his weirdly wonderful novels, read this remarkable collection.
--Michael Mazza (edited)