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Loading... Villa Incognitoby Tom RobbinsLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. slight I enjoyed this book muchmore than I expected. Typically I don't go for fantasy/magical realism or humor, but Robbins blended in just enough cynical political commentary and erudite references to make this a very fun book on many levels. I love the over-the-top vocabulary and bizarre analogies used to discuss things that would otherwise be riduclous or coarse. I didn't love the nice neat packaging at the end-- I thought is was kind of a sell-out and didn't blend well with the vague and mysterious nature of the rest of the book. But overall, a great quick read-- I think Robbins will have a place in my library as respite between more demanding reads (I can't read Tolstoy and Dickens all the time or my head might explode). My heavens to Betsy, this is fanciful stuff! The (mostly) human part of the narrative deals with three ex-pat Americans in Laos who supply heroin to hospices as a charitable enterprise. Along the way, we have erudition, particularly in areas of faith. The book is chock-full of thought-provoking insights in this area. We are steeped in the regional lore of Southeast Asia, and that brings us to the tanuki, the wild Japanese racoon dog. In "Incognito," the tanuki seek out human females to mate with, and when they succeed, it ruins the woman for any other relationship. When the tanuki and the woman conceive, another human female is born, and becomes a teacher to pass on certain aspects of the regional lore. My efforts so far to meld this plot line into the overall theme of faith and charity as it is illicitly pursued in Laos - I've come a cropper. Highly diverting work. I love the erudition, and the offbeat sensuality, especially in the heart and mind of the tanuki. Plotwise, this is a very straightforward book; don't come for the plot only, come for the fun! I almost bogged down a few dozen pages in (I actually got bored for a while - a Robbins first for me!) but persevered, and fortunately got the pay-off: for me the book got better as it approached the end. Highly fragmented and non-linear, the various micronarratives actually came together at the end, though any plot seems to have been simply a vehicle for Stubblefields (Robbins?) pontifications. The expected Robbins irreverent humor and crazy wisdom persisted throughout. My second Tom Robbins book . I have a lot more to read from him and I'm looking forward to it! Witty, entertaining, out-right weird and funny. My best guess, typical Tom Robbins. no reviews | add a review
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:54 -0400)
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