[.ca] You Can't Catch Death: A Daughter's Memoir (ISBN 0312264186)

From Amazon.com:
His daughter was 24 when quintessential '60s author Richard Brautigan (Trout Fishing in America) killed himself in 1984, and the obituaries were almost as painful for her as his tragic act. "I did not recognize the dignified, brilliant, hysterically funny, and sometimes difficult man who was my father in anything they wrote," says Ianthe Brautigan, who makes it her business to capture those qualities in this poignant memoir. Her recollections of an unsettled childhood bouncing between two free-spirited parents' bohemian homes (in San Francisco, Montana, Hawaii, and Japan) are remarkably free from bitterness, even when she chronicles drunken phone calls from her suicidal father. Alcohol was Richard Brautigan's fatal weakness, prompted by severe depressions rooted in an impoverished, unhappy childhood. But Ianthe also depicts his tenderness and warmth, the magical sessions of impromptu storytelling with writer buddies like Tom McGuane and Jim Harrison, the glamour of meeting movie stars Peter Fonda and Margot Kidder. She comes to terms with the past that always haunted her father when she makes a trip to Oregon to see her grandmother, estranged from Richard for 25 years. Without presuming to solve the mystery of his death, the author reclaims the values of Brautigan's life and work in her touching, sensitively written book. --Wendy Smith

Sensitive and moving memoir:
This memoir was written with sensitivity and emotion but never seemed maudlin. I was sorry when the book ended. I wanted more.

Richard Brautigan's writing room:
A lot of this memoir, written by Richard Brautigan's daughter, though charming in tone, is pretty much skimmable. What's interesting, however, are the descriptions of her father's writing room, particularly in San Francisco in the 1960s-70s on Geary Street and the surrounding vicinity. There are wonderful descriptions of the writing room with its typewriter and art hanging on the walls, such as the pencil drawing of a bus with real Lincoln penny heads as passengers and a picture of an ancient Colt pistol. And who can forget the small Buddhist shrine, the oak table with the stained rings of coffee cups, and the the back porch with those stacked piles of the San Francisco Chronicle. Like any good writer, Brautigan couldn't throw away a day's newspaper without going through it completely. This memoir also has some nice depictions of cabin life in Montana, and there as some interesting old black-white photos of Brautigan. Check out page 71 with it's picture of the ranch house kitchen and the bullet holes on the wall in the shape of a clock.--Alex Sydorenko, Chicago, 2001.

Brautigan again!:
This was a lovely book. I remember how saddened I was to learn that Richard Brautigan had taken his own life. His books had been a source of pleasure during my college years. I picked up this book in hopes of some insight into the reason for his death and was rewarded with much more than I could have hoped for. The vignettes of life with her father and dealing with his death were so immediate. The scenes stay in my mind and the beauty of the writing stays in my heart. This is a beautiful portrait of Richard Brautigan, his daughter and their love for one another.

A must-read for Richard Brautigan fans:
This is an absolutely riveting portrait of Richard Brautigan and a must-read for anyone who has enjoyed Richard's work in the past. While reading it, I had to keep reminding myself that this is not a piece of fiction. This is the real story of Richard Brautigan, and in some ways not so different from the fictional character we came to love in his novels. On top of that, this is a fascinating tale of father and daughter living through extraordinary circumstances together, and her triumph over the tragedy of his death.

A must-read for Richard Brautigan fans:
This is an absolutely riveting portrait of Richard Brautigan and a must-read for anyone who has enjoyed Richard's work in the past. While reading it, I had to keep reminding myself that this is not a piece of fiction. This is the real story of Richard Brautigan, and in some ways not so different from the fictional character we came to love in his novels. On top of that, this is a fascinating tale of a father and daughter living through extraordinary circumstances together, and her triumph over the tragedy of his death.