Trout Fishing in America

This weekend, looking at the Arion Press website, I discovered a book that I'd never heard of before called Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan. Rene informed me that it was not at all about trout fishing and I knew immediately I had to give it a read. Although it was a trippy set of random incidents, all somehow linked to Trout Fishing in America (as a person, place and thing), it was easy to read, unlike Naked Lunch which worked better as a film.

After finishing the book, which was centered in 1961 San Francisco, I had a realization that Jim Kweskin was probably some how connected to this work. Searching the web I found this fantastic map called Humbead's Revised Map which mentions both Jim Kweskin and Richard Brautigan.

I can only imagine the stories these two men could tell about life in San Francisco in the 1960s. Luckily Jim Kweskin is playing July 11 at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. We have tickets. This is the first time I'll have seen him perform live.