So I Just Read Jitterbug Perfume!

[EndersDame]

What a wonderful book! Are there any more like it?

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Never read it, but I did read 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues' way back

in the day and liked it. Heard good things about 'Still Life with Woodpecker', also by Robbins.

[Kceres]

2. Loved "Still Life with Woodpecker."

It's about a terrorist who falls in love with a princess. It's been 20 years since I read it and I remember so much about it. Also, "Another Roadside Attraction" was touching and funny. (Forgive the quote marks; can't figure out how to use italics on DU.)

[EndersDame]

4. What is Even Cowgirls Get the Blues about?

[nebenaube]

5. All of his stuff is pretty good...

But I enjoyed Jitterbug perfume the most...

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Not an easy question to answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_Cowgirls_Get_the_Blues_(novel)

I'm sure there is much I've forgotten about it over 30 years, but my impression was more that it was an experience rather than it being 'about' anything.

(Of course, in those days I was probably high when I read half of it.)

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Cowgirls, Another Roadside Attraction, Woodpecker - I've read those

Robbins books and like them. Have you read Water Method Man by John Irving? Though Garp gets all the press, I really like Water Method....side splittingly funny in some places!

[LynzM]

6. I love Tom Robbins...

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas was the first book of his I ever read... I find I get more out of them with each re-read... older, more perspective, whatever it is :)

[On the Road]

7. Jitterbug Perfume Was Robbins's Best,

My next favorite would Skinny Legs and All, but they're all pretty good.

Personal opinion of Robbins's books (on a curve to prevent bunching up at the top):

Another Roadside Attraction (1971)...............C
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976)...............A
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)................A-
Jitterbug Perfume (1984) ........................A+
Skinny Legs and All (1990) ......................A
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994) ..............B+
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000) ...B-
Villa Incognito (2003) .........................C+

I've never read anyone like Robbins -- to me he is THE novelist of the 60s counterculture. A lot of writers today try to incorporate strageness, comedy, and some of Robbins's other themes, but none of them have the same style. I love Chuck Palahniuk, and his work is also short strange, bizarre, funny, and moving. But it's also sometimes darker and raunchier and might not appeal to all Robbins fans. Palahniuk's best I think are Choke and Invisible Monsters.

[OregonBlue]

8. I've read them all and I thought Another Roadside Attraction was by far his best.

On the other hand, I knew some of the people he wrote about in that one so of course, I loved his descriptions.

[Sequoia]

10. That was one of my favorite novels ever.

Totally FUN !

[JitterbugPerfume]

11. Skinny Legs and All

is my next favorite after Jitterbug Perfume but I love all of his books.

[Onceuponalife]

12. I've only read Another Roadside Attraction and

Skinny Legs and All so far but loved them both. I second whoever said Water Method Man by John Irving...hilarious!