You Can't Catch Death

Ianthe Brautigan was nine years old when her father, Californian beat writer Richard Brautigan, first told her he wanted to commit suicide. She was 24 years old when he finally took his own life with a shotgun.This memoir is Ianthe's attempt to make sense of her famous father's suicide. What emerges in the book is an account of a complex, witty, caring man who was torn apart by internal demons. Written with a clarity of recall, an understated wit and with real control and pace, the book provides an insight into the legendary man, and the daughter left behind struggling to emerge from the shadows of her father's "fiery death".