Customer Reviews
a funny take on humanity - By: Mr. A. Richardson, 18 Feb 2007 
Sombrero Fallout is an excellent book detailing the chaos whichin engulfs a small town-when the aforementioned sombrero falls- & the grows to a crisis or worldly proportions. Can be seen as a satire of the cold war or read lightly as enlightening story that shows how prejudice & panic can cause problems on a world scale.
Richard Brautigan is much under rated & should read by a wider public..
If you aren't already a fan, you will be after reading this! - By: , 11 May 2001 Sombrero Fallout is a truly origional book. The story starts with an author who is devastated at having just been dumped by his beautiful Japanese girlfriend. He tries to write a story about a Sombrero that falls out of the sky but he is too sad & begins crying & throws the crumpled piece of paper into his bin. However, the story about the sombrero decides to go on without him in his wastepaper basket while he pines away for his ex. As we read this book we are told by Brautigan not only about the author & his despair for his lost love, but about the story of the sombrero falling out of the sky & the havoc it brings. These two stories occur simultaneouslyin alternating chapters, whichin pure Brautigan style, are only a few pages long each.
This book is funny (how often does a sombrero fall out of the sky & wreak havoc where you live?), sad, & at times disturbing. It is also very truthful. Anyone who has ever had their heart broken will relate to the author who becomes obsessed with his Japanese ex & desperately searches his house for a strand of her hair, that finding something left of herin his life becomes the most impoortant thingin the world to him.
This book is writtenin Brautigan's unique style. Short sentences, a sequence of words that roll of the tonguein the most beautiful way.
Anyone who has read Brautigan will love this book & anyone who hasn't, should.
It's a hard decision but...I think this is my favourite book - By: k.lawson@rfc.ucl.ac.uk, 10 Apr 2001 An American humorist who doesn't have a sense of humour, just heartache & lament for a lost love. A simple story about an unusual event - a unidentified fallen sombrero - that becomes unleashed into chaos. These two parallel stories hold you entranced from the first page (the only time they ever actually meet). His prose often runs like poetry. His characters are so endearing,in all their neurotic splendour, & I can't help but think that his hero has an autobiographical edge . I truly love this book & have done since I first read it ten years ago. I'm delighted it has been re-published - no more trawling through flea marketsin a vain hope of chancing an old copy - & I highly recommend it to anyone with an appreciation of absurd with soul. This is one that you'll want to share with others ... & own forever.
A kaleidoscope of desperation - By: David Sandilands, 29 Dec 2000 Richard Brautigan wrote beautiful books, of which this is one of the best; honest, real, tormented, fantastic, witty, visionary. I was saddened to hear of his apparent suicidein 1984. It adds poignancy to re-reading this book, as I realise now just how much of himself may bein it. May he restin peace.
Read this book - By: , 09 Nov 2000 You should read this book. Sombrero Fallout is a beautiful & unusual book. I cried & I laughed at parts of this book. The narrator (a writer like Richard Brautigan) is suffering terrible heartache at the break-up of his relationship - just finding one of her hairs on his pillow sends him into torment & despair. And it feels like its real. Woven through his pain however, we follow a story which he started writing, & threw away. In the bin the story develops & gains a surreal life of it's own. It's impossible to explain & fantastic to read - I recommend this book to anyone & everyone, buy it!
