In Watermelon Sugar

In Watermelon Sugar is an American postmodern post-apocalyptic novel by Richard Brautigan written in 1964 and published in 1968. The novel's narrator, who is left unnamed, claims to be writing an investigative book on his experiences at iDEATH (a commune set after a fallen civilization made of watermelon sugar). Its first-person narrative is sparse and minimalist, granting the novel a detached and alien quality. This pastoral parody alludes to communal experiments of the 1960s, involving the intersection of nature and technology. Brautigan himself said he based the book on his life in Bolinas, whose inhabitants were at that time known for their semi-communal and insular ways.