Trout Fishing in America

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Title Trout Fishing in America

Author	Richard Brautigan
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novella
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Released	1967
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-385-28860-3 (hardback edition)& ISBN 0-395-50076-1 (paperback edition)

Trout Fishing in America is a novella written by Richard Brautigan and published in 1967. It is technically Brautigan's first novel; he wrote it in 1961 before A Confederate General From Big Sur which was published first.

The book uses the phrase "Trout Fishing in America" in multiple ways: It is the title of the book, a character, a hotel, the act of fishing itself, a modifier (one character is named "Trout Fishing in America Shorty"), etc.

Trout Fishing in America is an abstract book without a clear central storyline. Instead, the book contains a series of anecdotes broken into chapters, with the same characters often reappearing from story to story. Several symbolic objects, such as a mayonnaise jar, reappear throughout the book. Brautigan uses the theme of trout fishing as a point of departure for thinly veiled and often comical critiques of mainstream American society and culture.

The Cover of the book is a photograph of the author Richard Brautigan and a friend who he identified as Michaela Le Grand, and whom he referred to as his "Muse." The photo was taken in San Francisco's Washington Square Park, in front of the Benjamin Franklin Statue.

[edit] Allusions/references from other works

W. P. Kinsella cited it as a major influence on his 1985 book, The Alligator Report.^{[citation needed]}