In Watermelon Sugar

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Title In Watermelon Sugar

Front cover of In Watermelon Sugar.
Author Richard Brautigan
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Fiction
Publisher Four Seasons Foundation (1968)
Released 1968
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 138 pages
ISBN ISBN 1-131-52372-5
Preceded by Trout Fishing in America (1967)
Followed by The Revenge of the Lawn (1970)

In Watermelon Sugar is a novel by Richard Brautigan published in 1968. It is a surreal tale of a village named "iDEATH", where everything is made of watermelon sugar. The narrator remains un-named throughout the book, and through his first person account we hear the story of the people and the events of iDEATH. The central tension is created by Margaret, once a lover of the narrator, and inBOIL, a man who has left iDEATH to live near the Forgotten Works and comes back with his gang of men to show the residents what iDEATH is. inBOIL and his gang bring about the violent climax of the novel.

The landscape of the novel is always changing. Each day has a different colored sun which creates different colored watermelons. Some critics believe the book to be about a new Eden in a post-apocalyptic world: the old destroyed world is represented by the Forgotten Works. The narrator becomes the new Adam in a new paradise. Some believe the novel to be about communal experiments in the 1960s. Some believe the novel to be about the intersection of nature and technology — a 20th century look at the pastoral.

In Watermelon Sugar is referenced in Dean Koontz's One Door Away from Heaven and Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True. The word 'iDEATH' is also a lyric in a song by new rave band Klaxons in their song 'Forgotton Works', that features on their album Myths of the Near Future (album).


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