Willard and His Bowling Trophies

This book is subtitled 'A Perverse Mystery'. There's not much mystery but it certainly is perverse. Richard Brautigan's writing style is very interesting. The chapters are very short (usually 2-3 pages) and the prose is very simplistic. It is almost as if his audience is a group of fifth graders. The content, however, is definitely adult.

This short novel features two sets of couples who live in the same apartment building. The upstairs couple, Bob and Constance are going through some difficult times. Constance has given Bob a venereal disease and Bob is having a hard time dealing. The couple are attempting to work through their issues via soft S and M but are struggling. Downstairs, John and Pat are enjoying a successful relationship and seemingly content. In their front room is Willard, a stuffed bird, and a collection of bowling trophies.

Looming over this are the Logan brothers, once upright young men who enjoyed family and bowling, now hell-bent and obsessed with finding their purloined bowling trophies. They have gone from petty theft, to assault, and finally to murder in their quest. The book leads up to the inevitable coming together of the principal characters, with odd fate thrown in for good measure.

I view this story as a reaction to the mid-70s hangover from 60s ideals. To me, the Logans represent all that was right with American society, and how quickly it could turn very wrong once the goals and aims it sought were gone missing.

I can't say I loved this book, but it was interesting and I read it in one easy sitting. Brautigan committed suicide in the early 1980s. His best known work is probably Trout Fishing in America.