National Network for Equitable Library Service

Writer Richard Brautigan was a counter-cultural icon of the 1960s. In Mayonnaise, the second novel of Éric Plamondon's 1984 Trilogy, narrator Gabriel Rivages pieces together Brautigan's life starting in Oregon, where he was born, to San Francisco, where he became a poet and satirical novelist, and on to the Bolinas, California, where he committed suicide in 1984. Sifting through the ruins of Sixties idealism, Plamondon recasts the American western frontier into a surreal, timeless place of industrial invention, Hollywood glamour and acid-washed hedonism. Originally published in French, Mayonnaise was a finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montreal. A leading voice of new Quebec fiction, Plamondon's 1984 Trilogy follows the promise of the American Dream through the destinies of actor Johnny Weissmuller (Hungary-Hollywood Express, 2016), writer Richard Brautigan (Mayonnaise), and tech guru Steve Jobs (Apple S, 2019).