Tom Robbins: C/D?

I've spoken to people about this guy and they either love his work or hate it.
what says the ilBz?

snap, dude!
nobodies bitin on this?

Um I really really liked that jitterbug perfume one but its the only one I read. But then all that stylistic shift complotcated stuff is like flashing lights for me and I can never tell if this kind of stuff is actually any good I'm so dazzled by it u no?

great for a book or two or when you're 18, then kind of didactic and corny.

i guess i have a short attention span, normally. so, like vonnegut, robbins style of writing is like in small chunks which i devour

how so didactic? i never felt as if being taught something . . .
or do i miss yr meaning?

Any more thoughts on this guy? I know nothing about him, but someone recommended one of his books to me.

Is he popular?

He was fairly popular, with some cultish vibes on the side. I've never read one of his books and can't offer an informed opinion.

I read a handful by him long ago (Still Life, Skinny Legs, Even Cowgirls, Half Asleep, and Jitterbug). The only one I liked was Jitterbug Perfume, but I really, really liked that one.

I read Skinny Legs and All at around 18, an age when I was totally ripe for falling for witty, quasi-philosophical contemporary novelists, and I looooooooved it. Read it multiple times, totally changed my life, etc. Read a couple more (Still Life and Cowgirls, and possibly one more), and while I enjoyed them, they weren't as good as I'd hoped. I have a feeling that SLAA would not stand up to a re-reading now (more than a decade later).

yeah, best read from ages 17 to 21 or thereabouts. but that's not a slam. i mean it in a good way.

I've got a soft spot for TR, who I read when I was in my early 20s. Now I think his books are less than the sum of their parts, but he has great similes. One of my personal favorites, about the Puget Sound area: "it was like a salad with a washcloth on top." I was living there at the time and it fit perfectly. There are hundreds more. I think of him like Richard Brautigan: striking observations tacked on to shaggy tales.

This thread's CW is right on - - - guy can write, he's entertaining and maybe even mind-expanding depending where you're coming from. I devoured Jitterbug Perfume, ambled through Cowgirls, and slogged through Still Life. Kinda guy that you wish had just written the one book and called it quits, since they're all a bit same-y and the magic wears off. Sort of like how Confederacy of Dunces is just perfect but I feel like another book by the guy would ruin everything.

i guess i just like the style. i agree that the books hit harder if yr in yr 20s. but every book i have read by him i have read quickly, which for me means i dig it. perhaps those of you who think he should've written one book should like another roadside attraction. all the ingredients are there: the female protagonist, the misunderstood genius, the new-agey drug philosophy, hillbilly tactility vs urbanite cerbral-ness, the crazy wacked out endings.

did anyone see the movie for cowgirls?

http://aftrlife23.appspot.com/

no way!: 1977 (August) Elvis Presley died with a copy of Another Roadside Attraction on the floor beside him.

can't believe this dude is 73, although i guess he is 68 here. still dude is lookin pretty good
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/Tom_Robbins.jpg/450px-Tom_Robbins.jpg

haha yeah just spent 5 minutes getting around that picture on wikipedia