The title story to Revenge of the Lawn is hysterically funny, from the sneaky cartoon bees to the drunk defeathered geese.note The whole story is Based on a True Story pretty closely; Richard's real great-grandmother, Madora Lenora Ashlock, was the goose-plucker; his grandmother Moonshine Bess Dixon was a well-known bootlegger with her friend Frank Campana, who had a morbid fear of bees (and really did cut down the pear tree). Richard believed in the Mark Twain approach to reading such tales, where the narrator should pretend he has no idea what he's saying is funny; but he can be heard valiantly trying to not giggle during the reading of "Revenge" for Listening to Richard Brautigan.
