Richard Brautigan

a private eye novel, 1942

Dreaming of Babylon

A Private Eye Novel, 1942

Katerina

Not his best work but still - a delightful trip down the rabbit hole of Brautigan’s mind. “Dreaming of Babylon” is a short and sweet dose of literary lunacy. A kind of escape from the real world and a jump into the absurd. Once again.

This was yet another genre that Brautigan took and made his own. A private eye novel that’s not really your typical private eye novel, even though the main character is, in fact, a PI.

C. Card is so unsuccessful that he makes failure look like an art form. Broke, indebted to everyone, including his landlady, his mother, the tenants that live in his building, the guy in the morgue and the chief of police. But! Card’s luck seems to be taking a turn when he lands a new client. The catch? Show up in front of a radio station at 6 pm with a gun – the only problem is, Card’s gun is as empty as his bank account.

And the real kicker? Card can’t stop dreaming about Babylon, a place where he’s the top-notch private-eye with a stunning secretary, Nana-dirat, who’s the epitome of perfection. In Babylon, Card’s imagination runs wild, and he can be everything he’s not in the real world. So, the story kind of weaves between Card’s quest for bullets in reality and his dreamy escape to Babylon, all while being so damn funny and absurd.

But as deeply funny as this book was, it was also deeply sad. Kind of like life… C. Card’s urge to escape the real world made me wonder about the terrible childhood he must have had, and all the terrible things he had to push down.

And what I was most amazed by, was Brautigan’s ability to bring up a mental health subject years and years before its time. Maladaptive daydreaming became a more studied mental health issue in recent years and was only defined in 2002. Proves to say how much Brautigan was actually ahead of his time.

And I just have to say… I listened to this book, narrated by Bronson Pinchot. What an experience this was! Real theathre in my ears. I don’t think I’ve listened to a book better narrated than this one.

So, even though it’s not one of Brautigan’s best works (at least according to me), it brought up some good questions that I dwelled on over and over. Through the absurdity of C. Card’s adventures, he manages to make you actually think on a deeper level, and he leaves you both bewildered and strangely satisfied.

Dreaming of Babylon a private eye novel, 1942

Reviews