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Another Roadside Attraction
by
Tom Robbins
What if the Second Coming didn’t quite come off as advertised? What if “the Corpse” on display in that funky roadside zoo is really who they say it is—what does that portend for the future f western civilization? And what if a young clairvoyant named Amanda reestablishes the flea circus as popular entertainment and fertility worship as the principal religious form of our h...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
June 17th 2003
by Bantam
(first published 1971)
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I was very underwhelmed by Tom Robbins first published novel. It was foolish of me to think that Tom Robbins the rookie would invoke the same immense feelings as Tom Robbins the wisened and experienced author. Reading this became a chore for me even though there were some hidden gems. It was enough that one character had a phrase (that rarely made sense) for EVERYTHING but then the narrator also had a penchant for doing the same. And I was very tired of "(or was it Africa?)". Cute...more
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The best word for this book is choppy. It is flashes of brilliance surrounded by a multitude of metaphors that are sometimes poignant and touching, but often flat and feel as if they're there for shock value. But being that this is only Tom Robbins' first novel, you can tell how he would grow to become brilliant.
The characters are intriguing and captivating, but there were many, many times when I found myself wishing the author would stop describing their minute nuances and just get on wit...more
The characters are intriguing and captivating, but there were many, many times when I found myself wishing the author would stop describing their minute nuances and just get on wit...more
Tracey
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
interested in discussions of faith & science
A couple of "flower children" types open a hot dog stand in the Pacific Northwest and correspond with a friend who has inadvertently joined an order of assassin monks. They are joined by Marx Marvelous, a self-proclaimed scientist who believes that Christianity is drawing to a close. And about that mysterious Corpse that shows up at one point....
Written in 1971, aspects of this novel seem awfully dated (drug & counter-culture references abound - plenty of sex, too!), but the ...more
Written in 1971, aspects of this novel seem awfully dated (drug & counter-culture references abound - plenty of sex, too!), but the ...more
Tom Robbins writes one sentence at a time. I read that in an interview once. He has a general outline or story arc for his books but he starts out by writing the first sentence, and then perfecting it. Once he is totally satisfied, he moves on to the second sentence and then perfects that one... and so on. I'm not sure if it's 100% true but reading his work certainly makes me believe it.
Another Roadside Attraction has always been in my top 5 of all time. Is there a way to mark that? ...more
Another Roadside Attraction has always been in my top 5 of all time. Is there a way to mark that? ...more
Parker East
added it
It is obvious that this is Robbins' first book if you have already read his later efforts. However, I still loved it, perhaps more so in some ways for it's compositional naivete. In his later books the prose turns tight corners with the polished efficiency of an indy driver and the whimsy of a circus clown, but this book has outrage in its mind and whisky on its breath. You can feel Robbins' getting out every jab and gripe he had percolating in his brain after years within the machine, and it's ...more
What do you get when you take a teenage hippy, a magician, a hot dog stand, and a mysterious Corpse? ...Probably something involving the law, but in the mind of Tom Robbins this unlikely combination arrives to unleash a Catholicism-crippling truth.
Robbins' first novel is less obscure than his later ones; you won't find barely recognizable metaphors in Another Roadside Attraction, but the drawn-out speeches on religion, truth, and humanity are front and center throughout. The novel s...more
Robbins' first novel is less obscure than his later ones; you won't find barely recognizable metaphors in Another Roadside Attraction, but the drawn-out speeches on religion, truth, and humanity are front and center throughout. The novel s...more
My first Tom Robbins (and his)... This book taught me that he is indeed the literary guru that he and all the coffeehouse cave-dwellers who can't pry their cigs away from their rot stained teeth long enough to save their lives... save 9$!... save my airspace... think he is... and like most egomaniacal freaks who are sure that their spiritual dick is bigger than everyone else's this work is fairly masturbatory-did he not have an editor, a friend, someone to help curtail the gluttony? Did he have...more
oh, tom robbins.
this is his first book, which i think is important to mention for a few reasons. first of all, i find it really interesting that he was able to jump so successfully into such an unusual style of writing. i don't find this book as bizarre as others of his, but to call it unusual is still an understatement. (unusual for anyone but robbins, that is.) second of all, this is the fifth book of his that i've read and each of the other four have been concretely (in my opi...more
this is his first book, which i think is important to mention for a few reasons. first of all, i find it really interesting that he was able to jump so successfully into such an unusual style of writing. i don't find this book as bizarre as others of his, but to call it unusual is still an understatement. (unusual for anyone but robbins, that is.) second of all, this is the fifth book of his that i've read and each of the other four have been concretely (in my opi...more
I used to be a huge Tom Robbins fan when I was younger. As I've grown older, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he really is just kind of a dirty old man. I've had a copy of this for it seems like all of my adult life, it's been boxed up and moved I don't know how many times, but it's probably been over ten years since I've read it last. It was always one of my favorites, and after my disappointment from recent re-visitations of other Robbins classics, I was a little leery of it. This ...more
I hated the beginning of this book, but trudged through it. I liked the middle section, but it was too short. And I was very disappointed by the ending, which failed in every imaginable way. Another Roadside Attraction has an interesting story, with likeable characters but it was severely muddled with horrible narratives, a distracted first-person, or was it third-person voice, obscure descriptions of meaningless objects and trivia along with pointless and rather inaccurate and error filled the...more
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...more
three stars might be a bit harsh. I really liked this book, and wanted to give it four, but I just couldn't do it.
For you see, I have discovered something terrible: Tom Robbins has almost no re-read value.
Seriously. It is almost nonexistent.
While reading his books for the first time can be an eye-opening, hyper-enjoyable experience, trying to go through them a second time proves taxing, irritating, and slow-going. All of the surprises have been used up. THe joy of language has...more
For you see, I have discovered something terrible: Tom Robbins has almost no re-read value.
Seriously. It is almost nonexistent.
While reading his books for the first time can be an eye-opening, hyper-enjoyable experience, trying to go through them a second time proves taxing, irritating, and slow-going. All of the surprises have been used up. THe joy of language has...more
This was my first of many Tom Robbins books. I read it for the first time when I was probably 16 and it completely opened me up to entirely new ways of thinking and over the years I would definitely say Robbins has had a significant influence on my general perspective. The way that he entertains and (perhaps subliminally) teaches while making you uncomfortable at times while extracting intense emotions at others is truly unique and remarkable. Over the course of reading this novel one experience...more
"There are three mental states that interest me. These are: one, amnesia; two, euphoria; three, ecstasy. Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is - and still not caring."
There are glorious moments in this book, insightful and funny and smart and quirky in ways that only Tom Robbins would attempt to navigate. These are the moments that keep me coming back for more. The premise has oodles of promise, but the story is slow to get us there and inconsistent along the way.
Marx tells us, more than once, that the story is about Amanda. Maybe for him it is, but if that's the case then the story in his head and the one he's writing down are two different thing...more
Marx tells us, more than once, that the story is about Amanda. Maybe for him it is, but if that's the case then the story in his head and the one he's writing down are two different thing...more
Tom Robbins was recommended to me aeons ago by a friend (now an occasional friend). I confess a little disappointment with Another Roadside Attraction, but the depth and range of ideas explored in the book is amazing.
I loved the ludicrous metaphors, the freewheeling insanity of language, the satirical humour and the intelligently argued discourses on the death of religion.
On a craft level, I felt the plot could have used a huge pair of scissors, and many of the characters...more
I loved the ludicrous metaphors, the freewheeling insanity of language, the satirical humour and the intelligently argued discourses on the death of religion.
On a craft level, I felt the plot could have used a huge pair of scissors, and many of the characters...more
I've read two of Robbins' works and enjoyed them, not immensely, but enough to be willing to dive into a third-especially on the recommendation of a friend. 207 pages into a 337 page novel I just couldn't take it anymore... the book had still not gotten to the "point" and I was screaming for some sense, some plot, some structure, a character I could like... anything to make me WANT to read the book and not feel like I was picking it up out of some sense of obligation.
If ...more
If ...more
Stylistically this is by far one of the strangest books I've ever read. It seems as though writing Another Roadside Attraction was some sick excercise in metaphorical expression by the author, Tom Robbins.
I picked up the book used based on a recommendation from a booklist I found online, The Essential Man's Library. I had previously read a Robbins piece, Still Life with Woodpecker, at the recommendation or a friend, Ari, but rembered nothing of the book. Thus I figured I'd adventu...more
I picked up the book used based on a recommendation from a booklist I found online, The Essential Man's Library. I had previously read a Robbins piece, Still Life with Woodpecker, at the recommendation or a friend, Ari, but rembered nothing of the book. Thus I figured I'd adventu...more
The story of how a gypsy princess, a free-spirited giant with a bone through his nose, a drug dealer, and a baboon come to possess the mummified body of Jesus Christ at their small roadside hot dog stand and zoo is nothing short of brilliant. Like other Robbins novels, the storyline often derails into monologues, flashbacks, and especially fables or twisted fairy tales. It's always astonishing how close he can come to skirting dated 60's rhetoric without losing his edginess.
Despite all of...more
Despite all of...more
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.
This is one of Robbins' greatest novels. It has all the delirious, joyful, drug-addled prose one expects from Robbins, but avoids his frequent mistake of devolving into boring speculations about the inner lives of inanimate objects or conspiracy theories involving the pyramids. The heroine, Amanda, is one of the sexiest characters in literature, despite (or maybe because of) her marriage to fellow carny weirdo John Paul. Read this book when you feel like having sex on a roller coaster.
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Robbins is certainly a clever writer. I had more than a few chuckles while reading this book, but more often than not, I found Robbins' writing style to be too self-aware. There is little to no character development- characters are simply vessels for Robbins' philosophy. I also found the ending to be a cop-out, a quick fix to the massive problem he had been dealing with for more than half of the book. Despite all of this, Robbins, as previously mentioned, is a witty writer. If you have some time...more
This go-around was my second attempt to read this book. I didn't make it very far when I first tried six or seven years ago. This time I actually really liked it.
Tom Robbin's style really takes some getting used to. To call it quirky is an understatement. But I found myself enjoying the antics of this trippy book and its characters. Amanda was definitely my favorite character, even though she isn't someone I could picture myself hanging out with.
I really feel like i...more
Tom Robbin's style really takes some getting used to. To call it quirky is an understatement. But I found myself enjoying the antics of this trippy book and its characters. Amanda was definitely my favorite character, even though she isn't someone I could picture myself hanging out with.
I really feel like i...more
In this story, Robbins proposes that the body of Christ did not actually rise from the grave, but was instead whisked away and kept for centuries in a Vatican basement. Through a series of events, Christ's body ends up in a roadside attraction in Washington state alongside a flea circus. Robbins signature writing technique is to weave together plotlines and intriguing, unique characters gradually, leading you along his winding and brambly literary path. Jitterbug Perfume is by far my favorite...more
pulsing through this novel, with its knock your socks off metaphors and crazy cool characters, is a my oh my kind of story and a scrutinization of the spirituality of ancient cultures versus christianity. freedom versus fear...i'll drink it up. robbins wrote this masterpiece at a time when the emergence of the knowledge of ancient, matriarchal, mother earth cyclical inspired cultures was just beginning to flow into the academic world. biases needed to be overwhelmed. they still do. senten...more
There isn't enough time in the day for me to convey just how utterly ridiculous, confusing, and maddening this book is. There are paragraphs that are clever and funny, but those are few and far between. Other than those, this book is filled with pointless story after pointless story that neither progress nor enrich the story. There are so many questions left unanswered, so many answers left unexplained, so many explanations that make no sense. However, the narrator does emphasize again and again...more
Enjoyable presentation of what is--and has been--wrong with the world and with our society for a long time. I am no fan of organized religion, especially the Catholic Church, and have no trouble imagining that they would have acted in the manner presented.
Robbins has a vivid imagination and is a wordsmith of the first caliber, and even though I agreed with what appeared to be his 'sermon' at times, it became overly wrong. I read for entertainment with a modicum of learning; would rather ...more
Robbins has a vivid imagination and is a wordsmith of the first caliber, and even though I agreed with what appeared to be his 'sermon' at times, it became overly wrong. I read for entertainment with a modicum of learning; would rather ...more
Robbins is as good as ever in this novel, providing us his customary magic realism with totally believable characters and situations that are so far out there in their wild improbability that any other author would look like he was just trying to be weird. Present are the drugs and sex and deep, challenging propositions about God and religion that we expect from Tom Robbins, and despite the stream-of-conscious flow that can form sentences that last half a page, he writes a page-turner that is t...more
Two stars because I got through it and Plucky Purcell seemed to have some interesting adventures. Other than that I spent half the time wanting to slap the characters for their wide sweeping generalizations and stereotypes while they ranted about generalizations and stereotypes.
Also, I have get the feeling that Tom Robbins creates strong female characters that give the illusion of strength and feminism just so he can get away with writing his sexual fantasies and novels about lesbians wit...more
Also, I have get the feeling that Tom Robbins creates strong female characters that give the illusion of strength and feminism just so he can get away with writing his sexual fantasies and novels about lesbians wit...more
i not quite sure what qualifies as a spoiler in literature of this type. but maybe my review contains a spoiler? though i did see this plot point in a synopsis, so maybe its not a spoiler...
**************
quite good-- amazing for a first work.
my main problem was it lacked some of the cohesiveness seen in his later work leaving the theme underdeveloped.
the subject matter was so intriguing and compelling, i almost wish he had tackled it when he was a little more ...more
**************
quite good-- amazing for a first work.
my main problem was it lacked some of the cohesiveness seen in his later work leaving the theme underdeveloped.
the subject matter was so intriguing and compelling, i almost wish he had tackled it when he was a little more ...more
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Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1936 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina) is an American author. His novels are complex, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details. His novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976) was made into a movie in 1993 directed by Gus Van Sant.
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“You risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous about risking one's life. So you lose it, you go to your hero's heaven and everything is milk and honey 'til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That's not courage. Real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's clichés.”
—
113 people liked it
“Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is - and still not caring.”
—
79 people liked it
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