In Watermelon Sugar Audiobook By Richard Brautigan cover art

In Watermelon Sugar

Preview

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

In Watermelon Sugar

By: Richard Brautigan
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $11.66

Buy for $11.66

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

iDEATH is a place where the sun shines a different color every day and where people travel to the length of their dreams. Rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works, they lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. In this book, Richard Brautigan discovers and expresses the mood of the counterculture generation.

©1968 Richard Brautigan (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Contemporary Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Mind-Bending
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about In Watermelon Sugar

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    146
  • 4 Stars
    97
  • 3 Stars
    82
  • 2 Stars
    34
  • 1 Stars
    24
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    189
  • 4 Stars
    78
  • 3 Stars
    46
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    114
  • 4 Stars
    77
  • 3 Stars
    76
  • 2 Stars
    29
  • 1 Stars
    34

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Euphoric for some reason that's hard to describe!

absolutely loved how simple and calming the story was. definitely took me to Ideath it self.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable novella.

The work starts out strong and poetic. Surrealistic and inexplicable moments happen throughout the book. The ending is not as satisfying as the beginning.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What you expect from Brautigan

The story gives you a view of plain, vague of characters perspectives to life! As simple as it is. Everything pass away and they just accept it and go on, there is no grudge or rebuke! It looks to me that they just understand what they can understand and accept what they can’t understand.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Spellbound

I loved every minute of it. It just had me enthralled.

It's definitely not for everyone though. Read the other reviews to decide if you would like it or not. It's unlike anything else really.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A forgotten favorite

The inventiveness and curious beauty of Richard Brautigan is a national treasure. I almost forgot how much I love this man’s writing. I was also pleasantly surprised to find Bronson Pinchot, a perennial favorite to this 80s child, to be such a captivating narrator. This book and Trout Fishing in America (of course) are a good place to start if you’re unfamiliar with Brautigan.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love

Nice shot story to listen to while you drink your coffee and feed bugs to your ducks.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A period piece

I loved this book when I found it on my parents bookshelf as a kid, partly for the sex, partly for the fantasy setting: a rural commune where the sun shines different colors on the different days of the week, people are buried in glass coffins at the bottom of rivers, and things are built from planks made out of watermelon sugar. I did find it odd that the name of the place was iDEATH.

Listening to it now, it seems to be about the dark side of close knit groups: how they single out individuals who threaten their harmony and destroy them; how factional disputes end in violence which is perceived and remembered in distorted, mythological ways.

The other thing that jumps out to a modern reader is the sexist, patriarchal ethos of the back to the land movement.

20 years later, Brautigan was living again in Bolinas California where the novel was written and maybe inspired by, when he killed himself.

In spite of all that, it’s a beautiful book, streamlined, fantastical, never boring. The reader’s style is just right for the material. I wish he raised the pitch of his voice a little less for women’s voices.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nothing’s clear, but an enjoyable listen

One man providing a little glimpse of life in his friendly, post-apocalyptic neighborhood. Bronson Pinchot is great as usual, and has the perfect voice for this narrator. I found it interesting and have listened to it numerous times, though I’m not sure what it all means. Maybe iDeath will be the final Apple product?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Shout Out To My English Professor

A great recommendation from my English Professor and glad to say I was not disappointed. I appreciate the narrator role playing his voice for each character. It did take a couple times to get into because there is a lot that goes on. My best advice is give it a try! It did open my imagination box. I definitely will listen over and over. I look forward to reading more of his work. 😊

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Magically disturbing

As wonderful and wonderfully mysterious as it was when I first read it in high school ln the late 60’s.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful