An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey is Richard Brautigan's eleventh and final published novel. Written in 1982, it was first published (posthumously) in 1994 in a French translation, "Cahier d'un Retour de Troie", . The first edition in English did not appear until 2000, when it was produced by St. Martins Press.
The story, set in 1982, is a series of diary entries by Brautigan about a woman named Nikki Arai who is suffering from cancer. Her best friend committed suicide and Arai suffers hard times after her best friend's suicide. After the death of her friend she tries to commit suicide numerous times. Eventually, Nikki decides not to take her own life and, in the end, dies from cancer.
Famous quotes containing the words unfortunate and/or journey:
“Uneducated people are unfortunate in that they do grasp complex issues, educated people, on the other hand, often do not understand simplicity, which is a far greater misfortune.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“... the first step of the terrible journey toward feeling somebody should act, that ends in utter confusion and hopelessness, east of the sun and west of the moon.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)