“Disaster’s always best when it’s on a grand scale.”

… and the scale certainly is grand in Tom Robbins’ rollicking riot of a novel. It opens with the beginning of a disastrous three-day weekend for one Gwendolyn Mati, a lovingly unlikable stockbroker whose ambitions are sky high and whose perceptions seem hopelessly shallow. It is the night before Good Friday and there has been a disastrous plunge in the stock market that has the whole economy screaming disaster, and Gwen finds herself facing t More...

This was my final attempt to enjoy a Tom Robbins book. I failed.

Unfortunately, it was more of the same from Robbins. Ham-fisted philosophizing, lurid sex, and purple prose. I guess if you were a teenager this would seem very literate and high-minded. Sadly, once you have read actual literature, you realize that this is garbage.

Although Tom tries to be esoteric and witty, it just isn't very good. Yeah, we get it, you know big words. Now try using them constructively instead of peppering your nove More...

Reading Tom Robbins is like reading Hunter S. Thompson. Almost everyone seems to go through that phase at some point, and then eventually that phase ends.

I read every Tom Robbins book up to this one; I've yet to read his latest two (or three, or however many there are). Each of them is fantastic in its own way, although there are some consistencies in his style that are fantastic throughout his books -- his completely mind-blowing use of language in the service of crazy descriptions, analogies, More...

"There's trouble enough these days just eluding violence and servicing one's debt." This was my favorite quote from the book, and for a work by Tom Robbins, that isn't saying much. As always, Robbins delivers stylistically - he is the only author I know who can use words like bumbershoot, phantasmagorical, and epiphanic flawlessly - but the book was dissatisfying overall. It was as philosophical and sexual as promised, but not nearly as comical. For me it was a lesser quality version of Skinny L More...

I just re-read this book after like 10 years and I loved it so much more. The characters were as I remembered them, but I noticed so many things that I didn't remember were in this book.. like the whole subject of biodiversity and ecological stuff that I probably didn't really notice before..
And I noticed this time around that most of it seems like Terrence McKenna was in the room when it was written.. I really needed a good dose of all that don't fall for the bullshit and it's not what it seems More...

In case you didn't pick up on it, my "Full Disclosure" shelf is reserved for those books I find embarrassing to post about - for one reason or another. However, if I'm going to make the jump to share what I've read over the past years, I figure I may as well be honest.

This was actually my favorite of the "Tom Robbins" phase. Now, I hate him. It's always the same fucking story with this guy: down-and-out lady meets mystery man who imparts wisdom, solves problems, and then does her - in very expli More...

Though I wouldn't necessarily say that this was my favorite Tom Robbins read, I keep returning to it. There is something very charming about the prose, something very sucker-punch about our naive protagonist, something very engaging about the very short time-frame over which the tale plays out. It's a fun read and typical of Robbins in as much as he's trying to turn some taken-for-granted beliefs and turn them upside down; but this one is more environmental than it is religious or spiritual in More...

P113 Once, in a spasm of sappiness, you asked Q-Jo if she thought your dreams would ever come true. "You aren't talking about dreams," she corrected you, "you are referring to your pathetic bourgeoisie ambitions. Dreams don't come true. Dreams are true."
P232
are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sbulimated death wish? It's not coinsidence we call them "deadlines." The Sahara'd be good for a hustler like you. If the sea teaches us humility, the desert teaches us patience.
P 276
and why shou More...

I read this book a year ago and have hesitated to review it because of a weariness at the idea of picking it up again; the humor, the plot, the references, the second person narrative: it's all so heavy. It takes less than thirty seconds to accumulate representative groaners.

"How typical of your luck that when you finally arrived in a position to poach your golden eggs, the goose had a hysterectomy."

"Thus, instead of a strong, nutritious broth, pungent with the aromatic spices of labor and succe More...

Since I "read" this book as an audiobook, the author's use of second person was disconcerting. At times, it sounded like hours upon hours of a fortune teller's ramblings ("you think that he is stupid. then you get up to go to the bathroom.") I don't think it would have had a negative impact on my rating if I were to have actually read it instead of listened to it, though.

The thing that WOULD have had a negative impact, audiobook or not, was the author's never-ending use of metaphor and simile. I More...

[Originally appeared on New Reads and Old Standbys in May 2009:]

I initially bought this book at the urging of a friend of mine who swore up and down that it was the best book he’d read “in forever, it’s sick, seriously, go out and read this now.” Before I go any further, let me point out that he uses the word “sick” as a synonym for “awesome,“ and the word pops up in conversation with him rather frequently. For a moment I honestly believed the book was disgusting, depraved or just plain rude, be More...

In this book, I guess, Tom Robbins, in the guise of Larry Diamond, is enlightening the square public (you and me, in the guise of Gwendolyn Mata) on the futility of striving for success (in the western sense of the word).
As always, Robbins writes a mean prose and to be in charge of the task of collecting the most memorable Robbins citations must be one of the hardest jobs around. “Evolution drives a bulldozer disguised as a stationary bike. With history, it’s the other way around” probably would More...

I don't even know how to begin describing this book. There is a blurb on the front cover that says "The ride of your life", and while I'm not sure about the "of your life" part, I am more than willing to agree about it being a hell of a ride.

In fact, reading this book was a lot like riding a rollercoaster. The story even had a lift hill; it was a bit slow to get started and it also took me a minute to acquaint myself with a second-person perspective. It was weird at first, being told by a book w More...

Do you ever have those days where you start a book thinking, 'ah, it will be good to read a little before I get out of bed, it will start my day nice?' Suddenly its 10pm and you've just clamped your lids over your dry eyes (not blinking for hours) and realize that your tongue is stuck-fat to the roof of your mouth (having not drank anything for hours)? Yup, Tom Robbin's "Half asleep in Frog Pajamas" is one of those kinds of books, the rare line of books with agency. They demand the rest of your More...

This is a very fun and wild book. It is easy to rush through this book to see what happens next and how it will all end. I really like the ending because it isn't what the main character has planned for herself, but it is satisfying to see it end that way. I also didn't see it coming at all. There are tons of fun discussions of society and beliefs and wild stuff involving aliens and amphibians and all sorts of things. This book immediately stands out for being written in the 2nd person, a very u More...

I've owned this book for years, but never got around to reading it until now.

I hadn't read Tom Robbins in a long time and wasn't sure I would like reading him again. I'd read several of his books in the early 90s and in that post-colligiate phase liked his word play and quirky characters, but for some reason I was even then a bit ambivilant about his books. I thought they were smart and that I should read them, but...they never really stick with me (the Chinese food effect). Frog Pajamas didn't More...

Psychics, sex, amphibians, and stocks all play a role in this jaunt of a novel. Simply put, Robbins takes his readers for a ride through the psychological unraveling--or raveling--of an undersexed financial analyst as her reality, the world she has built her whole life upon, begins to drain away in the form of a plunging Dow. Her psychic friend has disappeared and she believes that the ex-broker turned cow-patty picker has something to do with it. She tries desperately to plot a way to come out More...

The book was interesting in the way it was organized. I like how it was organized almost like a journal of Gwen's weekend of hell. Robbin's use of sarcasm was humorous and enjoyable.
As for the story-line, reading about Q-Jo and Andre were the more interesting parts. I didn't much care about the stock-broker talk though, even though it was such a major part of the book. Much of the talk about astrology and symbolism became lost on me as well. Although it is probably my own fault for not getting More...

This gets one star because it was well written. This is, by far, the strangest book I've ever read. I thought I would have an epiphany at the end, but I was I left wondering what this book was even about. The story line is about a young, female stock broker, and the market has just crashed. She meets a man that could fix all the mistakes she has made in the market so she could continue to be a stockbroker, or he could lead her to the path of 'enlightenment,' but he refuses to do both. She must d More...

Do you think sometimes people [readers] can put too much emphasis on novels. To the point of obsession. Base too much of their lives on them?

"It's wonderful that literature can have that kind of effect on people. On the other hand, it's a little sad. I think the healthy thing is -- when you encounter a book that has something to offer and that can change the way you perceive the world -- if you can take those things out of it and incorporate them into your own life to help propel you down your More...

simply horrendous. word salad at its most putrid. i began two of his novels, and could bear to finish neither. tom robbins=literary dysentery.

please, sir, i beseech you, nevermore even a single sapling felled for your shlock.

oh, and nice shorts, tom. could they be any shorter? geez, i have pubes longer than those things.

The writing is superb, and it is very stimulating to read. But the story centers around two forms of stylish nonsense:

1) Our naive and greedy main character gets taught some Randian lessons about the TRUE virtues of selfishness. Turns out she was correct in her contempt for the poor, just not for the right reasons.

2) Our main character is introduced to a "universal history", one that supposedly spans all cultures. The truth is that humanity developed in our unique way due to aliens. This is a c More...

I really loved Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, but I think the novelty of Robbins's style that drew me delightfully into that book simply wore thin in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. The novels are similar in their intelligent approach to mystical pop culture, but one is really enough to get the idea.

Okay, can T.R. please pick some new freaking characters? I am betting sick of the "macho" bad boy, soo deep and misunderstood, who is attracted to the skinny hot but not so smart woman. Get a new fucking plot. and I sure could do with out the pages and pages of rants from the macho man!

After finishing the book, I read the reviews that had been posted and found myself agreeing with parts of those who rated it 5 stars and parts of those that rated it 2 stars! The stock market problems were dead-on and I do love indictments of the status quo, but the main character was -a lot of the time- simply a caricature for a real person and NOT somebody you could really rally behind (there were times that I got fed up with her and felt she deserved worse punishment than what she received! B More...

I'm really not a fan of books where it is clear that the author is trying really hard to be clever. Unlike many of those authors, I think Tom Robbins actually succeeds in being clever, but it doesn't motivate me too much. My main problem with this book is the use of the second person. I think it would work if it were a murder mystery or some book where you were swept away by plot and the main character didn't have dominant personality traits. But the main character in this book, you/Gwen, has ev More...

Typical Tom Robbins "professional reject from Seattle stumbles onto spiritual conciousness through discovery of connection between ancient primitive religion and aliens" plotline. This time it involves frogs, the Bozo tribesmen of Africa, Sirius, and a (female, WTF?!!?) stockbroker.

Entertaining as usual, and he paints the protagonist as more skeptical than usual. It's nice that all the truly wacky plot points that are introduced in the early, early part of the book are used in the final section, More...

The use of the 2nd person narrator did not endear me to the book when I first jumped in. Because the narrator is such a specific, detailed character that is unlikely to share many traits with a theoretical 'typical' reader, it felt to me a very distancing approach on Robbins' part. This is almost certainly on purpose, I'm sure. Nevertheless, I did eventually get into the story and basically stopped noticing the 'you'; I think my brain cut&pasted 'she' in its place. I found myself skimming th More...

The setup is standard Robbins: a smart, successful, independent-but-inhibited woman finds sexual and spiritual enlightenment from an oversexed, crass-but-sagacious older man who's played by society's rules and decided to seek happiness elsewhere. A handful of forgettable supporting characters come and go, displaying plenty of quirks but no substance. The plot goes nowhere, the whole thing is way too long, the main characters are unrelatable at best and detestable at worst, and the whole novel is More...

I went into this book expecting to not like it since a lot of other Robbins's fans have said it's their least favorite of the books. That's part of the reason I left it until last. While it's no Fierce Invalids (but really, what is?) I ended up enjoying it as a whole. There were times while reading it that I didn't enjoy it-but the journey was worth the result. The characters aren't nearly as charismatic as his others, but, I still couldn't help but love Larry Diamond and Q-Jo...even though, I k More...