Still Life with Woodpecker

published	by Transworld Publishers Ltd
first published	1980
binding	Paperback
isbn	0553408984 (isbn13: 9780553408980)
pages	272
date added	12-09-06 edit book

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Julia rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

12/28/07

Read in December, 2007

recommended to Julia by: Don
recommends it for: people who really like tom robbins...?

I'd heard this book wasn't as bad as some of the later Tom Robbins, where I think even he was getting tired of his schtick, but... Not by me. So far the decline in my liking of Robbins books had been related to my reading the later ones later (proved by the exceptions), but not in this case. Maybe I'm just overall tired of Robbins, or maybe this one just wasn't for me. Of course, compared to the great mass of uselessness out there, anything Robbins is still going to be pretty interesting. Bu...more I'd heard this book wasn't as bad as some of the later Tom Robbins, where I think even he was getting tired of his schtick, but... Not by me. So far the decline in my liking of Robbins books had been related to my reading the later ones later (proved by the exceptions), but not in this case. Maybe I'm just overall tired of Robbins, or maybe this one just wasn't for me. Of course, compared to the great mass of uselessness out there, anything Robbins is still going to be pretty interesting. But this review is going to pick at the negatives, because everybody knows what's cool about Tom Robbins... (Or if they don't, plenty of other reviews will tell them.)

The odd analogies in particular just didn't seem as cool as they used to; maybe they were more clumsily integrated (really they often just seem there to be there rather than to be of any use), or maybe I'm just over it. A lot of the specifics were like that; I guess I'll have to reread a Robbins I liked to see what I think of it now. Some of _Woodpecker_ did just seem clumsy, though, in a not-experienced-or-not-great-author kind of way. A lot of author intrusion, which may seem like a funny thing to say about a book where a lot of the innovative form-twisting funniness is in things like the author breaking in to talk about his relationship with the typewriter that's putting out the manuscript, but I'm talking plain old point-of-view slippage and that sort of thing (using 'seemingly' of a character whose POV we were in in the previous paragraph and will be back in in the next, that sort of thing). Sometimes breaking the Rules comes off as interesting and experimental, and sometimes it comes off as just bad writing,* and different components can come off differently to different people. So maybe some people would think the intrusive 'seemingly's brilliantly new, and some people would think the bits about the typewriter just bad writing, but that's the way I slice it, anyway. (And of course it has the usual sexist bullshit, though maybe it was advanced for its time? Hard for me to say.)

Overall... As with anything so full of philosophical BSing, there were a few aha moments, and a bunch of moments where I think it's full of crap. (Robbins does polyphony, in his own unique fashion (interestingly so), but some messages are clear, like Artists Are Superior Beings, which may well be true but I don't buy his reasoning.) And the content? Eh, anyone can write a review about content. :) The supporting characters were much better done than the main characters, in my opinion. King Max and Queen Tilli were quite fetching.

Tom Robbins does not exactly write character-driven novels most of the time, so what are they? Form-driven? Sounds awful, but it's a good enough form to mostly carry it most of the time. (They're certainly not plot-driven nor setting-driven...) I think the books I've liked best of his have been the closest to being really character-driven, but that's typical for me.

And finally, a comment from my housemate Bao-Tran: "How could you not find that book used? Every single person in Berkeley owns a copy of that book! I think even I own a copy of it!"

* One of my editorial postulates: Experimental form sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from bad writing. Not sure whether that applies here, or whether Robbins was just being lazy....less

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Angie rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

02/19/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: redheads, people who used to meditate religiously but now feel kind of sheepish about that

Tom Robbins is Tom Robbins is Tom Robbins, and you like him or you don't; I do. There is something about the stoner-cowboy vernacular of the thirty-something 1970s-era male that I find endlessly endearing. It is this vernacular that I am holding responsible for this book's tendency to remind me, constantly and throughout my entire reading of it, of The Executioner's Song. I thought that maybe it was the fact that the main characters of the two stories shared a lot of similar traits, like ...more

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Jploof rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

10/01/07

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: people who love each other

"The most important thing is love," said Leigh-Cheri. "I know that now. There's no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon."
Leigh-Cheri sent that message to Bernard through his attorney. The message continued, "I'm not quite 20, but, thanks to you, I've learned something that many women these days never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the Beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can ...more

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Jessie rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

09/07/07

I really enjoyed myself. Some of my favorite moments...

Once, Princess Leigh-Cheri used a papal candlestick for the purpose of self-gratification. She had hoped that at the appropriate moment she might be visited by either the Lamb or the Beast, but, as usual, only Ralph Nader attended her.

Behavioral traits such as curiosity about the world, flexibility of response, and playfulness are common in practically all young mammals but are usually rapidly lost with the onset of maturity in all...more

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Dale rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

10/03/07

Read in August, 2007

The ninth book I read on my commute in 2007. I read this right after Ulysses, as kind of a palate-cleanser, since Tom Robbins is pretty far from James Joyce. But I kept thinking as I read this one about how both it and Ulysses were so very much products of their respective times - Ulysses of Ireland in the 1930s, and Still Life with Woodpecker of the U.S. in the 1970s.

The example that amused me the most is that, in SLWW, a certain famous figure is held up with great reverence and love ... ...more

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Leo added it (review of isbn 0553348973)

04/21/08

As my lack of stars indicate, this book is ok. However, the Best thing about the book is the following quote - one of the most influential in my life:

"How can one person be more real than any other? Well, some people do hide and others seek. Maybe those who are in hiding--escaping encounters, avoiding surprises, protecting their property, ignoring their fantasies, restricting their feelings, sitting out the Pan pipe hootchy-kootch of experience--maybe those people, people who won't tal...more

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Christen rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

02/18/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: horny teenagers

It's rare that a single scene or line from a book that rubs me the wrong way can completely take me out of it. In fact, without precedent. But a male lead character who starts dictating his (far-too-young-for-him) female partner's birth control method, without so much as asking politely, goes from Entertaining and Wacky Guy Who Just Burst On the Scene to That Icky, I-Know-What-Yooooou-Need, Seems-Insightful-But-Is-Really-Just-Manipulative-and-Psychotic Guy That I Dated Way Too Many Times When I ...more

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Rapunzel210 rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

04/30/08

bookshelves: books-that-changed-my-life

Read in July, 1981

I first read this book in 1981 or thereabouts when I was married to my first husband. I had three children and felt completely trapped in a dangerously toxic, dead-end relationship that I saw no way out of.

Still Life with Woodpecker, more than anything else, is about CHOICE. About using it, about the freedom it offers, and about being willing to accept the consequences for exerting it. Sometimes I would be reading and have to close the book up suddenly because I couldn't handle the implicat...more

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Cloudhidden rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

11/27/07

Read in February, 1997

recommends it for: everyone

Tom Robbins is one of those authors that can truly change your life and make you believe in everything that is hip, fun and wild in this world.

When I first read this book I was a junior in college. After finishing it, I think I gave the book as a gift every chance I got for the next few years.

Like many authors, your first one you read by them becomes your favorite and the others just don't live up to it. That is the way it seems with Robbins.

"Still Life With Woodpecker&quo...more

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M. rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

01/27/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: philosphers & historians

I liked this a lot. It speaks to me. I love the idea of the Outlaw being in love with Love and life, and damn everything else. Couple problems though: One with Robbins' writing; One with his philosophy. Writng first--too many similies that just stopped me. They make no sense. They don't help me to see, or set a mood, or understand. They're just plain dumb--too cute comes to mind. His philosophy--if society has no consequence, which is what he implies, then why be an Outlaw? He asserts society an...more

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Mike G. rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

09/01/07

bookshelves: fireandforget

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: Silly girls with tattoos that express their "life philosophy" and are "spiritual but not religious"

UFOs? Pyramid Power? I hate the New Age. I hate anyone close to my age that admires ex-hippy Baby Boomers for all that they "accomplished". I hate Tom Robbins because he probably has a thousand or more college-age groupie girls that will jump into bed with him whenever his hand comes within three feet of a keyboard or typewriter. I hate personality cults and Ayn Rand and L. Ron and any jagoff that claims a book, especially a novel written by an inept lout such as Robbins, has changed t...more

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3 comments

Simone rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

05/03/08

bookshelves: favorites, fiction, own, you-need-to-read-these

I read this book at least once a year. It is my all-time, numero uno top dog. A few of my favorite moments...

Kidnapped by French champagne was more like it. The champagne had hold of them both, and not a ransom note in sight.
"I'm peeing stars!" the princess squealed.
Bernard produced a pack of Camels from his shirt pocket. He put it through toy UFO maneuvers while making bleeping noises of the third kind.
Leigh-Cheri returned. "I got stars on my shoes," she compla...more

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

09/24/07

Who knows how to make love stay? (#1 is a Valentine's Day tradition for my parents.)

1. Tell love you are going to Junior’s Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.

2. Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of t...more

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Bridget rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

08/06/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: those who like odd books for a change

I was debating between putting this at at 3 or a 2 1/2. I really wish that I had someone to discuss this book with. It is my first read of a Tom Robbins book and I don't know much about the author, but I cannot decide if I think he is brilliant or completely pretentious. The story was entertaining, but the writing style unlike anything that I have read. It was such a strange storyline but in the same sense strangely enjoyable. The philosophy behind the book was interesting to contemplate, b...more

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Hilary rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

01/31/08

Read in February, 2008

This has been on my list of top 10 books forever, but as I haven't read it in 20 years I thought I should revisit it (I hardly ever read a book twice). I understand why I loved it at 20 something and I am still enjoying it, but it seems a little dated both in general and in terms of me. But who can resist "one person's ennui is another person's coronary" or passages like "Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest. Tu...more

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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0553348973)

10/12/07

Read in January, 1997

recommends it for: teens

My previous review of this book is listed below and was rated at five stars. I started to reread the book out loud and had to stop. I just couldn't get past how contrived the writing style was and how awkward it sounded coming out of my mouth. Once I had heard it, I couldnt read the book any more. Maybe it's really great for teens but not such a great book for adults? Or maybe it just doesnt stand up to re-reading.

"Tom Robbins is one of my favorite authors for the simple fact that his ...more

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Anne rated it:

(review of isbn 0553348973)

06/16/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: anyone who likes philosophy and comedy

This was a very odd book. I had read about 100 pages of it before I brought it on vacation with me. I tried to explain it to my best friend while lying on the beach, and I just couldn't figure it out. There's a princess in exile in Seattle and a red-headed outlaw and a story about a frog prince, and then a whole section about the meaning of pyramids and a bit where the princess locks herself in a blacked-out attic to simulate the outlaw's prison cell...whatever. Despite not being able to fig...more

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Subini rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

08/20/07

Read in August, 2007

Sarah is going to hate me for this but I did not love this book as much as I did many years ago and it is far from Tom Robbins best book (which I would put as Skinny Legs and All tied with Another Roadside Attraction).
The Woodpecker character is just too preachy and though I agree with a lot of his points, I thought he was kind of shallow always waxing on about his outlaw theories. And Princess Cheri is just kind of an extremist-first a social activist extremist, then a love extremist, then a ...more

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Lis rated it:

(review of isbn 0553348973)

07/09/07

bookshelves: 2007-reads

Read in July, 2007

hmm, i guess my main problems with the book... well, i can't tell if this is the author, or the characters that: a) i get the sense that he or they are not as smart as he/they think he/they are, such as Zapotecs having disappeared being news to me, and probably would be surprising news to the Zapotecs as well; b) a bit of ethnocentricity, such as the assumption that there is no way the civilizations that built the pyramids had the mathematical knowledge themselves to design them. there were more...more

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Rebecca rated it:

(review of isbn 184243022X)

05/25/07

bookshelves: favorite-all-time-sentences

Who knows how to make love stay?
1. Tell love you are going to the Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.
2. Tell love you want a memento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your...more

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