The Tokyo-Montana Express

by Richard Brautigan

Hardcover, 1980

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Untitled collection

Publication

Delacorte Press / Seymour Lawrence (1980), Edition: 1st, 258 pages

Description

A collection of one hundred and thirty-one "stations" inspired by memories of Japan and Montana, January-July 1976, that seem to form a somewhat autobiographical work. According to the author, each section of the novel represented a separate stop along a journey, a station along a metaphorical rail line joining Japan and Montana. Common themes running through these stations include Brautigan's own disillusionment with aging, the search for identity, the diversity of human nature, and cultural differences between Montana and Japan.

User reviews

LibraryThing member keylawk

The author of generally wonderful fiction writing ("Trout Fishing in America") and poems, here presents a series of small sketches drawn from Tokyo and Montana very loosely from the stops on the route of a fast but imaginary train. As described by the author:

"Though the Tokyo-Montana Express moves

at a great speed, there are many stops along the way. This book is those brief stations: some confident, others still searching for their identities.
The "I" in this book is the voice of the stations along the tracks of the Tokyo-Montana Express."

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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

Richard B. married a Japanese lady, and produced this curious work. This book muses about life in a Mixed Culture Marriage, personified by the stations on a fictitious railway line.

LibraryThing member comfypants

C (Indifferent).

One of Brautigan's longest books, and it's just a series of unconnected ramblings. I think they're meant to be prose poems? But it's more like a collection of things somebody might say to fill silence in a conversation.

(Feb. 2024)

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