Book Review | In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan

The epitome of 'no thoughts, just vibes', In Watermelon Sugar will take you on a whirlwind of an adventure filled with watermelon, trout and talking tigers.

I'm going to be honest with you: the only reason I read this was because Harry Styles recommended it. He also has a song with the same title so I was guessing that this should be a pretty good read. I don't think I would've picked this up on my own accord honestly.

About In Watermelon Sugar

Brautigan brings you into this fantasy world called IDEATH—which has nothing to do with iPhones, by the way. The sun rises in a different colour each day, people travel to the length of their dreams and its inhabitants devour watermelon like water.

The people of IDEATH lead gentle lives, rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works.

In Watermelon Sugar is narrated by a nameless person. The narrator goes on about his day, meeting his friends at IDEATH, chilling in his shack and going on his nightly walks.

In Watermelon Sugar Review

In Watermelon Sugar was a very confusing read. I had to reread it multiple times and even resort to reading summaries before I could even have a brief idea of what was going on.

The first few pages of this novel aim to enchant you into IDEATH, sharing its beauty of watermelontrout oil and rivers that are only inches wide. I found this fantasy land to be interesting in theory but I couldn't grasp it properly. It was like I had this world at the tip of my fingers but I couldn't welcome it into my arms wholeheartedly. There was just something missing from it that failed to transport me into IDEATH.

While the world-building is pretty good at times, there was practically no plot to it. It's mostly character-driven so we're really just going off of vibes here. The narration was a bit chaotic, as one's brain usually is, but it just didn't work very well for this story. It was disorganised and difficult for me to keep up with. I had no clue what was going on most of the time.

In Watermelon Sugar is also told in a direct and straightforward manner. Things that may seem weird to us are perfectly normal in the world of IDEATH. A tiger who's a Mathematical genius? Perfectly normal. A house made out of watermelon sugar? Cool, everyone has those. Corpses in the river? No biggie. It was a strange thing for me to understand at first because I had to switch off my 21st-century brain to adapt to this utopia.

And what was that ending? It was so abrupt like the writer just decided to stop writing. I did not appreciate that conclusion, especially after the headaches I went through trying to understand the mere concept of In Watermelon Sugar.

My Recommendation

★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

This book is the weirdest thing I have ever read.

The narration in In Watermelon Sugar was all over the place. I was begging for an ounce of context but all I got was fancy mumbo jumbo. In the end, I could kind of figure out what was happening but it was too bizarre for me to continue caring.

I took away nothing from the book, not even the vibes.

If I'm being optimistic, I would probably give this book another chance and read it again in the future to see whether I share the same sentiments as I do now. However, there's just too much nonsense going on in this book that I don't think I'll bother putting myself through that again.

I think I can live without that watermelon sugar high for now.