You Can't Catch Death

Ianthe Brautigan was nine years old when her father, the Californian beat writer Richard Brautigan, first told her he wanted to commit suicide. She was twenty-five years old when he finally realised his death wish, taking his own life with a shotgun.This memoir is Ianthe's attempt to make sense of her famous father's suicide, to come to terms with it, and to try and paint a picture of the man she knew.What emerges is a moving account of a complex, witty, caring man who was torn apart by internal demons, and of a writer who became a hero of the 50s and 60s counter-culture but had to endure watching his fame and work fade away into relative obscurity.Written with a clarity of recall, an understated wit, and with real control and pace, You Can't Catch Death is a fascinating insight into the man behind the legend, and of the daughter he left behind.