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This is yet another brilliantly insightful compilation of Brautigan's work. "Revenge of the Lawn" brings to mind the oddly relatable absurdity found in "Trout Fishing in America". The short stories and poems offer a vivid mental picture of Brautigan's perception of life in America and the idiosyncrasies that humanize us all. "The Abortion" is strange, inspiring, and uplifting, presented in Brautigan's down-to-earth style that effectively opens us up to even the most taboo thoughts, from the difficult decisions that emerge during sex to the management of a library where anyone can bring a book but no one can check them out. The book follows a reclusive and rather complacent librarian at an unconventional library as his life is first disrupted by a beautiful but self-conscious woman and then by the encroaching force of society. "So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away" takes a powerful topic, the death of a childhood friend, and places it within a fictional context of time, society, culture, and the regret-filled survivor's life, making the reader experience everything the narrator does. The continuous foreshadowing of the narrator's friend's death does not detract from the story in the least. In fact, it truly helps to situate the unfortunate event within the context of the rest of the narrator's life (which has endured another 32 years since the death he describes). His constant shifts from the present day to his early and later childhood give the impression of a restless mind of someone living with profound regret.