Tom Robbins serves up a hippy-fied Nietzsche. The old god is dead -- they literally find his corpse -- and the old religion is to be replaced by some sort of nature mysticism. We are all 'slowed down light,' at one with the energy at the heart of everything. This sort of thing can easily become a big, flaky mess, but after about fifty pages I succumbed to the grooviness of it all -- well, I enjoyed the story but wasn't swept up by the New Age philosophy. Robbins' figurative writing is especially good, and funny. Robbins gets extra marks for having one of his characters demand that the auto makers build an electric car (in a book written in 1971). He gets more bonus points for sticking in a reference to Vonnegut's 'Bokonon'.

Allegedly, Elvis Presley was reading Another Roadside Attraction just before he died. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.... ( )

This is the fourth novel I have read in Robbins’s oeuvre, and although I have six more to go, I feel comfortable saying the man can’t go wrong. He’s creative, thought-provoking, funny as hell, and he harbors a love for language and all things word-y that is infectious. Another Roadside Attraction is his first novel, yet unlike the majority of authors who only fine tune their voice in subsequent works, he already has a grasp on his unique style of storytelling.

Some of the reasons I enjoyed this book: hippies, mushrooms, the Paul Newmanesque Plucky Purcell (a.k.a. Brother Dallas), conspiracies within the Roman Catholic church of vast implications, flea circuses, the Infinite Goof, the traditional American staples that are hotdogs, Bow Wow Mountain (where I could see myself gladly living out the rest of my days after hitting old age), the Indo-Tibetan Circus and Giant Panda Gypsy Blues Band (where I could see myself gladly living out my youth before my retirement to Bow Wow Mountain), Tarzan movies. The list could go on, as the book is fraught with memorable characters, images, situations, and places.

Another Roadside Attraction is often credited with being a quintessential book of the 1960’s, and although there is no questioning that the novel does in many ways capture the spirit of one of the wildest decades etched in cultural memory, in many ways it goes beyond being a mere time capsule and puts the time period in its ideal mold, rather than definitive. Take this small piece from the book:

“While strolling through her cactus garden one warmish June morning, Amanda came upon an old Navajo man painting pictures in the sand.
‘What is the function of the artist?’ Amanda demanded of the talented trespasser.
‘The function of the artist,’ the Navajo answered, ‘is to provide what life does not.’”

This sums up what I think Robbins excels at, especially in terms of thinking of this book as being iconic of the 1960’s. Yes, in Another Roadside Attraction he picks up on some essential quality that makes up the backbone of the time period, but he also creates it anew, and this vision is uniquely particular to Tom Robbins and infinitely enjoyable for the reader. I recommend this book highly to anyone other than you stiffly stiffersons out there, as there is drug use and numerous sex scenes. Also, there are some ideas put forth that may offend staunch Christians, but, ya know, don’t be so serious. It’s fiction (plus, if you hold on to your beliefs but imagine the implications were the book’s plot hypothetically true, you’ll find a feast where the expression “food for thought” can be applied).

This book is certainly going in my “To Re-Read” pile. A last quote from this book to enjoy (although I can’t remember where it is in the book and I am quoting from memory, I think I’m pretty close):

“Life is a fortune cookie in which someone forgot to put the fortune.”

Think about it. ( )

Loved it! The writing is so descriptive and brilliant that I find myself able to still smell and feel what he wrote after reading it years ago. The world-view in the book is at once real, ridiculous, hilarious and thought provoking. ( )

Whimsical and tagential, it can meander at times, though it takes the reader into interesting places if you dont mind drifting in that direction already. I often find that the season I read a book can influence the way I read it and I read this in the summer, so I had a very relaxed attitude when I first picked it up. I think you need to keep that all the way through. ( )

Robbins in fine form ! ( )

I wasn't a fan of this one. I love Tom Robbins' writing, but I can't stand Amanda, who Robbins idolizes. I just wanted to tell her that condoms are cheap and easily accessible.

Filled with Robbins' signature quirky characters and plot twists, this story centers around a group of hippies, a hot dog stand/zoo, a baboon, and the body of Christ. It is interesting to see how Robbins settled into his style even in this, his first novel. He even plays around with point of view, switching from 1st to 3rd person and back again. I didn't particularly like that actually, but it's nice to see that progress into the strong narration he later provides in books such as Still Life with Woodpecker. ( )

this man is a genius. ( )

Interesting, zany fun... and some spicy scenes to boot. An odd sort of humor, but engaging. ( )

1.89

At the time I read this, I was stunned that literature like this existed. Now, after having read a great deal more, and a great deal more Robbins, I realize this was a great attempt at something he would later succeed at doing--creating a magical world within our own. The characters are not memorable except for their eccentricities, which makes them only mildly interesting.

But this is not a bad place to start. ( )

wow - I read this book more than ten years ago and loved it. I then was asked to read it last month for book club, and found that it was the most uninspiring, dated thing I have ever read. I couldn't finish it and I just didn't relate to any character. I guess this really does show how what you read tells a lot about where you are in your life. Ten years ago I wanted to be sooooo different and misunderstood. Now I think it just doesn't matter. ( )

funny premise of a bunch of hippies who find the body of christ in the catacombs of the vatican. Typical Tom Robbins eccentric characters and hilarious plot ( )

I loved this one. The premise is hilarious. ( )