The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western

The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western is a novel by Richard Brautigan written in 1974.

Taking place mainly in eastern Oregon in 1902, the story concerns a pair of morally ambivalent gunmen, Cameron and Greer. On a job in Hawaii, they are stopped by the fact their target is with his son. After returning to California they spend some time in a whorehouse, where a young Native American-looking woman, Magic Child, comes to hire them for a job at her house. Along the way they stop at a place to eat and during the meal hear loud gunshot-like noises. That night Magic Child sleeps with both men and Greer takes quite a liking to her. When they reach the house, in the middle of the western plains, it is surrounded by snow. Miss Hawkline comes to greet them and they realize that Magic Child is her twin sister. As soon as they enter the house the women's personalities change and they explain that they brought the men here to hunt down and destroy the "monster" living in the "ice caves" beneath the house. Miss Hawkline and her servant/sister/other self (also called "Miss Hawkline") believe that the monster has killed their father, a scientist who disappeared while hard at work in his basement laboratory on a project referred to only as "The Chemicals," which would, he claimed, if perfected, be a great boon to the human race. During the conversation the four characters realise that the monster is somehow altering their minds to make them lose track of what they are discussing. The large family butler dies suddenly and shrinks into a little person. After all the strange happenings, evidently designed to distract them, Cameron pours a glass of whiskey into the test tube of chemicals that created the monster. This kills the monster, destroys the house and turns the father back into a human being (he had been an umbrella basket the whole time). The butler returns to normal size. Cameron and Greer marry the two sisters, and the story ends, but an epilogue states that the sisters eventually divorced the two men.

For many years film-maker Hal Ashby unsuccessfully attempted to make a film adaptation of this book. Actors Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton and Jeff Bridges were all considered for the lead roles. Brautigan wrote a screenplay which Ashby rejected. When asked to write a second draft, Brautigan turned him down. The film was never made. Director Tim Burton also tried to make a film version, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood were attached to star but after Eastwood left the project so did Nicholson and then eventually Burton left the project too.^[1]

References

External links

• Entry on brautigan.net
• The Hawkline Monster at Hunter Publishers
• Images of First Edition