In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan is a post-apocalyptic novella that was published in 1968. This particular book had a reputation among young readers who were challenging traditional ways of thinking at the height of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The book very much expresses the mood of the counterculture generation.
The book is written from the perspective of the nameless narrator, who addresses his audience, and lets them know he is writing the book. The narrator lives in a shack near iDeath, a small town where people live a gentle life with watermelon being their main food source. In fact, watermelon sugar is used in the production of literally everything in iDeath from clothes, houses and bridges.
There is a group of citizens in iDeath who begin to rebel against the lifestyle of those in iDeath, and they form a group called inBOIL and set up a camp at the Forgotten Works, a dump that holds the scattered pieces and remnants of the past.
The inBOIL group makes whisky, gets drunk and they do evil things. This group also digs up relics and books to sell to the villagers. Unfortunately, the narrator doesn’t discuss what is going outside the world of these two clans, the reader may assume that life as we know it has been destroyed through nuclear war and those that did survive had to learn to survive in this new world.
Little is also known of the past, besides the concept of “talking tigers” that used to roam the area and ate no name’s parents before being wiped out by humans. This book is so far out that I had a hard time reading the one-page chapters and found myself rereading the page to make sure I understood what I read.
There are far better books in the world that a reader could spend time reading. My advice is to read the first page (which is the first chapter) and you will get all you need from In Watermelon Sugar.
As a librarian, I know that every reader has their book, but sadly this book is not for me.
3 out of 5 stars.