Villa Incognito
by Tom Robbins
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| what is the significance of the chrysanthemum seed??? | 2 | 5 days ago, 08:55AM |
| Should you read? | 4 | 10/29/2007 12:19PM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 3095)
Read in June, 2007
His newest book (I think) takes place mostly in SE Asia (Laos and Thailand) and is centered around 3 former Vietnam POWs and the international opium ring they run. It is, however, written by Tom Robbins so there is plenty of sarcasm, beastiality, spiritual dialogue, biblical badmouthing, circuses and tanukis. As always he is fun to read, but this wasn’t as good as Skinny Legs and All. I did enjoy it though and would recommend it.
Good Quotes:
“Trees are a damn sight more useful than peop...more
Good Quotes:
“Trees are a damn sight more useful than peop...more
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Read in April, 2008
This could have been a very fun romp, but the author's political opinions, reflecting the baby-boomer sentiment shine through: Academic, peace nik and religiously agnostic (and holding those that feel differently in contempt). If I, the kid of someone who shares these opinions exactly noticed the bais, I wonder if others do and how accessible this book would be to someone who is not liberal and raised in the 1960s and 70s. The author's lack of respect for certain American instituions really ma...more
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Read in December, 2007
addendum to both of the below: this is really a three star book (in my book), but i subtracted a star for how unmotivated i was to finish it. a true goodread should not make you want to give up! that said, i really liked a lot of the language and inventiveness of this book. maybe it wasn't the best intro to tom robbins; i look forward to reading something else by him.
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addendum to the below: tess loaned me her print copy (thanks, tess!) and it's about a billion times better than ...more
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addendum to the below: tess loaned me her print copy (thanks, tess!) and it's about a billion times better than ...more
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Read in March, 2007
This book came to me because the recommender asked what that funny statue was in my living room. I replied, a tanuki. He looked at me strangely, so I spelled tanuki out for him. Then, much to my surprise, he said I read a book about tanukis and I thought they were made up by the author.
Well, Tom Robbins did not make up the story of the tanuki from scratch, but he did embellish on the Japanese legend. Robbins is one of those rare authors where I stop for a second and think, how the hell did ...more
Well, Tom Robbins did not make up the story of the tanuki from scratch, but he did embellish on the Japanese legend. Robbins is one of those rare authors where I stop for a second and think, how the hell did ...more
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Read in February, 2007
Loved it, of course. The first line:
"It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute."
Ha. Nice story involving elements of Japan, Thailand, Laos, opium, heroin, beastiality, myth, gods/goddesses, the circus, animism, and much more. It can get a little annoying when Robbins' characters talk like him, but because that's just Tom Robbins, I forgive him.
"...the soul is not an overweight nightclub singer having an unhappy love affair in Det...more
"It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute."
Ha. Nice story involving elements of Japan, Thailand, Laos, opium, heroin, beastiality, myth, gods/goddesses, the circus, animism, and much more. It can get a little annoying when Robbins' characters talk like him, but because that's just Tom Robbins, I forgive him.
"...the soul is not an overweight nightclub singer having an unhappy love affair in Det...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
freethinkers, nonconformists, environmentalists
I read this book on the recommendation of my little brother. Since he's never been much of a lit-lover, I thought the recommendation strange enough to elicit a try.
The narrator reminds me a lot of my brother. A gleeful anti-authoritarian with a penchant for humorous similes is the best way to describe the style of narration. The story itself is remarkably fresh. It involves the mythical Tanuki of Japanese folklore, the tanukis of today's endangered environment, Vietnam POWS that choose to stay...more
The narrator reminds me a lot of my brother. A gleeful anti-authoritarian with a penchant for humorous similes is the best way to describe the style of narration. The story itself is remarkably fresh. It involves the mythical Tanuki of Japanese folklore, the tanukis of today's endangered environment, Vietnam POWS that choose to stay...more
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Read in September, 2007
There was absolutely no story in this book. It's READY for a story, the intro story is awesome, but then it stops and it introduces the modern characters and sets the scene. The scene, a character has been caught transporting opium, from there you get a background story of all the characters, their sex lives, hobbies, education, everything. You get the full backstory of a circus, a town, everything. Then, within the last 15 or so pages, each character does one thing. One guy eats a sandwich and ...more
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2 comments
by tom robbins. this book is hilarious. i resonated with the book because its about 3 vietnam MIAs who go missing in Laos and decided they wanted to stay missing. now that i know i'm headed home, i'm already missing the culture, the food, the weather. the book is about Bangkok, Laos, Japan, and American culture. It was excellent, but it ended a bit abruptly i thought. a glimpse of America through Japanese eyes:
Your country [America] seems to have everything and yet has almost nothing. It...more
Your country [America] seems to have everything and yet has almost nothing. It...more
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Read in June, 2008
My first expeirence with Robbins was promising but personally unfulfilling: although a very interesting and entertaining story is there, one that blends elements of Japanese mythology with the history of southeast Asia and the modern American empire, one told with plenty of colorful images and vivid prose, most of it felt derailed by sidetracks into trite political/philosophical truisms, straw men characters built around stereotypes that are made only to hate and mock, and Dave Barry style pop c...more
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Read in September, 2007
Either Tom Robbins is losing it, or I've come a long way in the last ten years. Probably a bit of both. Robbins still has a way with colorful metaphors and characters, but it seems old hat after eight novels. In my late teens I couldn't get enough TR; reading, highlighting and dogearing my way through each, grinning as I went. I had a compulsive need to start each book over again as soon as it was finished. Robbins' journey towards mediocrity started with Fierce Invalids, and continues to w...more
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Read in September, 2007
Wish I could give it 2.5 stars -- it was somewhere between "ok" and "like it". A member of my book club said to stick with it because it might not grab you right away. She was basically right. I liked how legend and modern day were woven together. I liked the "adventurous spirit" of the book and how improbable things were considered common events. Some of the metaphors/similies were amusing, but many felt like they were created to show the intelligence of the a...more
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Read in May, 2004
I really enjoy Tom Robbins very much, but this book just really fell flat with me. I'd read one or two other Robbins books just before this one, so perhaps it was partly just general Robbins-fatigue, but Villa Incognito really felt like a lazy mishmash of generic Robbins themes and humor. When I read this book most of the time my mind was going "Blah blah beautiful prose about dr...more
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Read in July, 2007
I've only read two books by Robbins, and I prefer (nay, love!) Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates.
That said, the characters in Villa Incognito weaved their way into my subconscious and became more and more likeable as I appreciated their independent spirits, skills, and subversiveness.
Speaking of "-iveness", there's plenty of perversiveness in this book, so if you can't hang, it might not be up your alley! We're talking a mix of magic realism, beastiality (yes, I said beast...more
That said, the characters in Villa Incognito weaved their way into my subconscious and became more and more likeable as I appreciated their independent spirits, skills, and subversiveness.
Speaking of "-iveness", there's plenty of perversiveness in this book, so if you can't hang, it might not be up your alley! We're talking a mix of magic realism, beastiality (yes, I said beast...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Tom Robbins newbies
Ok, so I'm still reading this book and it is seriously screwed up.
I have never read anything by Tom Robbins before, but I will definitely investigate further.
The author is incredibly intelligent and very funny, but I've had trouble reading it the whole way through so far.
After a while his crazy banter makes me tired and with all the traveling I'm doing I don't have much time to open a book and read.
However, I have a lot of respect for the author now and can't wait to investigate the rest...more
I have never read anything by Tom Robbins before, but I will definitely investigate further.
The author is incredibly intelligent and very funny, but I've had trouble reading it the whole way through so far.
After a while his crazy banter makes me tired and with all the traveling I'm doing I don't have much time to open a book and read.
However, I have a lot of respect for the author now and can't wait to investigate the rest...more
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Read in December, 2007
I love Tom Robbins. My love of language I attribute, in part, to Still Life With Woodpecker. This one, I'm sad to say was just stale. There were certainly clever metaphors and his relationship with words still amazes me. But I read this while on a lazy tropical vacation with lots of beach and pool time--and I still couldn't do it. I had nothing distracting my attention, but I found myself having to go back and re-read far too often. The man is brilliant, but this one didn't do it for me. And, I ...more
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Read in July, 2006
I read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues a year ago and have been a big Tom Robbins fan ever since. While this is not my favorite of his books, it's a great read. Like many of Robbins' books, it focuses on people who have chosen to live on the fringe of society. By writing about such people, Robbins offers an outsiders view of mainstream American culture...its problems and why someone would want to escape it. He does this with such a degree of humor that you can miss the larger points if you don't...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
This is probably Tom Robbins most digested book. Its his most recent novel and its kind of a let down for me. Its a fun quick read. I was just expecting more. The ending ruined it for me. It was cute, but...well it just didnt feel right. Thats all.
It all starts with a Beaver like creature that has a rather large scrotum that goes around stealing Sake and having sex with the local women. It goes into present day from there...it really is entertaining and good. Just not a typical Tom Robbins r...more
It all starts with a Beaver like creature that has a rather large scrotum that goes around stealing Sake and having sex with the local women. It goes into present day from there...it really is entertaining and good. Just not a typical Tom Robbins r...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Michaela by:
Erin
Book number nine in the fifty book challenge, and it almost feels like cheating since Robbins is so easy to read. Not half as dense as the books I usually pick up. All the same, he tells an interesting story, and the smatterings of Robbinsian philosophy permeate per usual. There are times you laugh, there are times where you just roll your eyes, and there are times when you think that's what I've been trying to say for so long. Anyways, I guess the point is he made me want to go to South ...more
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I could not even get through this book. I made it to the fourth or fifth chapter, I think, before giving up. It just did not capture my interest at all. This was the last book of Robbins' that I did read, so that might have something to do with it, but really I just found it muddy and complicated and boring.
I tried again to give it another shot, but again found myself completely uninterested by the third chapter.
If you're a Robbins fanatic, try it out, by all means. But don't expect much...more
I tried again to give it another shot, but again found myself completely uninterested by the third chapter.
If you're a Robbins fanatic, try it out, by all means. But don't expect much...more
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Read in August, 2007
I wouldn't say this is among Robbins' best novels. Much of what he said in his diatribes I found at the very least cute, or at the very most, valid and interesting. But, I was kind of confused about the whole chrysanthemum seed thing and it kind of made it difficult for me to really get into the book, since I Was always thinking in the back of my mind, "what the hell is the deal with that seed?"
It was a pretty quick and enjoyable read, though not as enthralling as some of his better
It was a pretty quick and enjoyable read, though not as enthralling as some of his better
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