brautigan, richard

i have been very slowly and gently rereading brautigan's trout fishing in america, wearing sunglasses out on my landing, often hungover, sometimes with a cigarette. i finished it today and miss it already. it is very beautiful and makes the world look more beautiful by proximity.

"There was a bowl of goldfish next to the bed, next to the gun. How religious and intimate the goldfish and the gun looked together.
They had a cat named 208. They covered the bathroom floor with newspaper and the cat crapped on the newspaper. My friend said that 208 thought he was the only cat left in the world, not having seen another cat since he was a tiny kitten. They never let him out of the room. He was a red cat and very aggressive. When you played with that cat, he really bit you. Stroke 208's fur and he'd try to disembowel your hand as if it were a belly stuffed full of extrasoft intestines."

- from "Room 208, Trout Fishing in America"