I loved 'A Confederate General Of Big Sur' and 'In Watermelon Sugar' ranks in my top five all-time favourite reads. But I didn't appreciate 'Trout Fishing in America', and the three books in this omnibus edition are more closely related to the latter than the former.

'Revenge of the Lawn' contains a couple of chapters left out of 'Trout Fishing', as well as a lot of other short stories, some of which are only a paragraph long. I found them overwhelming, probably because I tried to read them too quickly, and they became something like an overdose of sugary treats.

'The Abortion' was strange and I don't think it totally works. It's the story of a librarian of sorts - his library houses books written by people who otherwise wouldn't see their books published in a million years. Imagine the curator of lost blogs, and you get the idea. He gets his girlfriend Vida pregnant and they go to Tijuana for an abortion, and that's really about it.

'So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away' is the highlight of the collection, mostly because the language is so muted and there's a very real sadness that runs through the story. Brautigan committed suicide not long after completng it, and one wonders if the bumpf-writers are correct in suggesting that the one foreshadowed the other. ( )