Tom Robbins: the biggest fraud in literary history?

For a time, like a moth drawn to flame, I tried and tried again to read ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION, until I realized that life is just too damn short. I would catagorize Robbins as the most COMPLETELY UNREADBALE popular author that ever wasted paper. THEY CUT DOWN TREES to publish this tripe! I can't STAND him. He should have his word processor dropped on his fingers.

And another thing:

Paul Auster. Calgon, take me away!

I agree wholeheartedly - I suffered through Even Cowgirls get the Blues just because I always finish a book when I start one. I got some satisfaction when I used it to start a fire.

I liked Even Cowgirls get the Blues when I was 17, but am sure that if I did a reread I would shake my head and wonder at myself. I was disappointed in Another Roadside Attraction, and he went downhill from there. Still Life with Woodpecker was a dog and Skinny Legs and All was a stinker beyond dog rating. Don't ask me why I read them, I can't explain it. I had hoped they would get better.

I forgot Jitterbug Perfume, scrunched up jitterbugs pickled in alcohol.

No...really? I LOVE all these books...Jitterbug Perfume is in my all time favorite books category.

Am I the exception that proves the rule? Oh well, there's one in every crowd...even on LT.

I'm mostly on your side, CarolO - I loved Cowgirls, Still Life, and especially Jitterbug Perfume.

I guess it does say something, though, that I have Skinny Legs on my shelves but haven't read it yet. And I'm sure I bought it new...

It pains me to have to dis him because before he became ensconced in Washington state he was originally from my neck of the woods.

I read Still Life and Cowgirls. I don't remember much about them except that I felt like I should have liked them more than I actually did.

I liked the earlier Tom Robbins. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was the first one I read and I agree with CarlO and karenmarie, Jitterbug Perfume was my favorite. The latter works just don't seem to grab me the way the earlier ones did.

Read Cowgirls at 17 (!#3) because everyone was reading it, started Attraction about a year later and got through 100 pages before giving up. Something I seldom do.

Loved Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Another Roadside Attraction when I was 15. Of course, I also loved Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; thought The Fountainhead was profound; and probably would have loved Walden. Can't stomach any of 'em now.

For those who just don't get it -- Another Roadside Attraction explains to the clueless what it really meant to be a hippie. You either get it or you don't. Hint: The balloon trip at the end is a metaphor for getting so high that you never come down. . . .

If you lived in that time and in that place and in that way, Robbins' books are side-splittingly funny. Even if you didn't live the life and don't 'get' what Robbins is telling you, you gotta have tin eyes if the first paragraph of 'Jitterbug Perfume' doesn't reach out and grab you and drag you right into the book.

'Still Life with Woodpecker' is dope-addled sixties, bomb-throwing radical comes down from his cave in the mountains, gets dog-locked with clueless princess, screwball comedy/love story pure and simple. Should have gone to Hollywood but somehow didn't make it. Oh, Oh Spaghetti-Oh!

And yes. Robbins is like George MacDonald Fraser and anybody else who writes too many novels of the same sort: His work became formulaic after a while: I think I read the first five or six Flashman novels before finding that I knew what would happen next before I turned the page. Robbins lost me after 'Jitterbug Perfume.' I've tried to read 'Villa Incognito' a half-dozen times and never get past the first few pages. His magic isn't there for me any more.

# 12: I lived in that time and in that place and (sort of) in that way. I read Robbins when his books were new. I enjoyed Jitterbug Perfume but the rest were consigned to...Goodwill, I think, and good riddance!

It is a crime against logic, intelligence and humanity to refer to Tom Robbins and "literary" anything in the same sentence. "Literature" is material read by people who can count to twenty without taking off their shoes.

That is why I wear sandals :)

A lot of literate people like Tom Robbins. That's why his hard-cover books cost so much in places like ABE Books and Alibris.

Those of you who've seen George Clooney in "The Men Who Stare at Goats" should be aware that the climactic scene (in which Clooney and the other hero soar off into the wild blue yonder in a helicopter) rips off the end of "Another Roadside Attraction" (where the heroes fly away in a balloon).

I've read a couple of his books and I didn't enjoy them. Fierce Invalids in Hot Climates and Jitterbug Perfume, as I recall. When I remember them, I think of ego-driven, arrogant protagonists who are bad ass and do bad ass things, and are very clever and multi-talented and cool.

To me, this type of protagonist fits best in children's adventure stories, like Treasure Island or something, where the kid has to believe in him or herself in order to survive and eventually triumph. These seem like good characters for kids (and adults) to be inspired by. With regard to adults, though, I often find this kind of person (and character) to be insufferable.

Maybe, though, I'll re-read a Tom Robbins book in ten years or so and have a totally different feeling about it. I feel like books change at different stages in life, and sometimes characters come off differently at different moments in one's own experience.

I also think I might have quite enjoyed Tom Robbins when I was a teenager.

#16 - I don't think it is fair to say that anything that ends with the heroes leaving by air transport is ripping off Tom Robbins.

I loved Still Life with Woodpecker and liked Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, but never could get through Another Roadside Attraction. What I read of that one (the last bit I remember was our heroine sucking off an entire gypsy camp), it felt like Tom was slapping me in the face saying "Ain't it cute how iconoclastic my characters are?"

Still, I would read more of his stuff. I heard him on 'Wait! Wait! Don't tell me!' and he was a pretty funny guy.

#18 -- The heroes in "Roadside Attraction" were high on drugs. They went up in a balloon and never came down. The heroes in "Stare at Goats" were high on drugs. They went up in a helicopter and never came down. The heroes in "Roadside Attraction" were hippie iconoclasts. The heroes in "Stare at Goats" were hippie iconoclasts. You sure you don't see any connection there?

I think it says a lot that Tom Robbins can excite such intense feelings in people. I've read everything of his that I've been able to trace, and I find them highly mind-expanding as well as being funny and entertaining.

I liked Jitterbug perfume a lot but am quite disappointed in the others I've tried reading from him. it's just not fun.

waiting for a day when someone can suggest one that was as good as jitterbug perfume

I loved the first two or three Robbins novels when I was in college. As I matured, I began to find his characters and their situations cartoonish. I never met anyone in any of his novels that I thought I'd met in real life, so to me his books are completely unsatisfying. On the other hand, I own a used bookstore and his books sell almost as soon as they come in, so to each his/her own, absolutely.