A sombrero fell out of the sky and landed on the main street of town in front of the mayor, his cousin, and a person out of work. The day was scrubbed clean by the desert air. The sky was blue. It was the blue of human eyes, waiting for something to happen. There was no reason for a sombrero to fall out of the sky. No airplane or helicopter was passing overhead and it was not a religious holiday.
The opening lines of the surreal novel Sombrero Fallout by Beatnik writer Richard Brautigan (1935 – 1984). The quite unique story has a double narrative of a writer struggling to deal with a break up with his Japanese girlfriend and also write a story about a sombrero that falls in a small town and the seismic affect it has on the locals.
Alex Raphael 