Most Popular Books by Tom Robbins

Known for his meaty seriocomic novels–expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow–Tom Robbins has also published over the years a number of short pieces, predominantly nonfiction. His travel articles, essays, and tributes to actors, musicians, sex kittens, and thinkers have appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper’s, from Playboy to the New York Times, High Times, and Life. A generous sampling, collected here for the first time and including works as diverse as scholarly art criticism and some decidedly untypical country- music lyrics, Wild Ducks Flying Backward offers a rare sweeping overview of the eclectic sensibility of an American original. Whether he is rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso’s Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls “the genius waitress,” Robbins’s briefer writings often exhibit the same five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language. Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are a couple of short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an off-beat assessment of our divided nation. And wherever we open Wild Ducks Flying Backward, we’re apt to encounter examples of the intently serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described “romantic Zen hedonist” and “stray dog in the banquet halls of culture.”

“Robbins’s comic philosophical musings reveal a flamboyant genius.”—People Still Life with Woodpecker is a sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.

An Arab and a Jew open a restaurant together across the street from the United Nations.... It sounds like the beginning of an ethnic joke, but it''s the axis around which spins this gutsy, fun-loving, and alarmingly provocative novel, in which a bean can philosophizes, a dessert spoon mystifies, a young waitress takes on the New York art world, and a rowdy redneck welder discovers the lost god of Palestine--while the illusions that obscure humanity''s view of the true universe fall away, one by one, like Salome''s veils. Skinny Legs and All deals with today''s most sensitive issues: race, politics, marriage, art, religion, money, and lust. It weaves lyrically through what some call the "end days" of our planet. Refusing to avert its gaze from the horrors of the apocalypse, it also refuses to let the alleged end of the world spoil its mood. And its mood is defiantly upbeat. In the gloriously inventive Tom Robbins style, here are characters, phrases, stories, and ideas that dance together on the page, wild and sexy, like Salome herself. Or was it Jezebel?

Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn’t conclude until nine o’clock tonight (Paris time). It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.

“B Is for Beer isn’t meant for children . . . But kids at heart, and anyone bemused by Robbins’ previous novels, will guzzle down Robbins’ latest brew.” —The Denver Post A children’s book about beer? Yes, believe it or not—but B Is for Beer is also a book for adults, and bear in mind that it’s the work of maverick bestselling novelist Tom Robbins, inter-nationally known for his ability to both seriously illuminate and comically entertain. Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it’s a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world. Populated by the aforementioned characters—and as charming as it may be subversive—B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski. “In his children’s book for grown-ups/grown-up book for children, Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) takes readers on a whimsical tour of all things beer, written in the language of a bedtime story . . . the premise and execution of this unique book lends itself to moments of real humor.” —Publishers Weekly

“This is one of those special novels—a piece of working magic, warm, funny, and sane.”—Thomas Pynchon The whooping crane rustlers are girls. Young girls. Cowgirls, as a matter of fact, all “bursting with dimples and hormones”—and the FBI has never seen anything quite like them. Yet their rebellion at the Rubber Rose Ranch is almost overshadowed by the arrival of the legendary Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash goddess literally born to hitchhike, and the freest female of them all. Freedom, its prizes and its prices, is a major theme of Tom Robbins’s classic tale of eccentric adventure. As his robust characters attempt to turn the tables on fate, the reader is drawn along on a tragicomic joyride across the badlands of sexuality, wild rivers of language, and the frontiers of the mind.

“Written with a style and humor that haven’t been seen since Mark Twain.”—Los Angeles Times 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 of 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 high-tech age? Another Roadside Attraction answers those questions and a lot more. It tell us, for example, what the sixties were truly all about, not by reporting on the psychedelic decade but by recreating it, from the inside out. In the process, this stunningly original seriocomic thriller is fully capable of simultaneously eating a literary hot dog and eroding the borders of the mind. “Hard to put down because of the sheer brilliance and fun of the writing. The sentiments of Brautigan and the joyously compassionate omniscience of Fielding dance through the pages garbed colorfully in the language of Joyce.”—Rolling Stone

Imagine that there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War. Imagine that there is a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women have shared a mysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore. Imagine just those things (don’t even try to imagine the love story) and you’ll have a foretaste of Tom Robbins’s eighth and perhaps most beautifully crafted novel--a work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat. On one level, this is a book about identity, masquerade and disguise--about “the false mustache of the world”--but neither the mists of Laos nor the smog of Bangkok, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk of the intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the linguistic phosphor that illuminates the pages of Villa Incognito. A female fan once wrote to Tom Robbins: “Your books make me think, they make me laugh, they make me horny and they make me aware of the wonder of everything in life.” Villa Incognito will surely arouse a similar response in many readers, for in its lusty, amusing way it both celebrates existence and challenges our ideas about it. To say much more about a novel as fresh and surprising as Villa Incognito would run the risk of diluting the sheer fun of reading it. As his dedicated readers worldwide know full well, it’s best to climb aboard the Tom Robbins tilt-a-whirl, kiss preconceptions and sacred cows goodbye and simply enjoy the ride.

When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you—an ambitious, although ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker—are convinced that you’re facing the Weekend from Hell. Before the market reopens on Monday, you’re going to have to scramble and scheme to cover your butt, but there’s no way you can anticipate the baffling disappearance of a 300-pound psychic, the fall from grace of a born-again monkey, or the intrusion in your life of a tattooed stranger intent on blowing your mind and most of your fuses. Over these fateful three days, you will be forced to confront everything from mysterious African rituals to legendary amphibians, from tarot-card bombshells to street violence, from your own sexuality to outer space. This is, after all, a Tom Robbins novel—and the author has never been in finer form.

“As clever and witty a novel as anyone has written in a long time . . . Robbins takes readers on a wild, delightful ride. . . . A delight from beginning to end.”—Buffalo News Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy; a cyberwhiz who hates computers; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn’t merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. And as we dog Switters’s strangely elevated heels across four continents, in and out of love and danger, discovering in the process the “true” Third Secret of Fatima, we experience Tom Robbins—that fearless storyteller, spiritual renegade, and verbal break dancer—at the top of his game. On one level this is a fast-paced CIA adventure story with comic overtones; on another it’s a serious novel of ideas that brings the Big Picture into unexpected focus; but perhaps more than anything else, Fierce Invalids is a sexy celebration of language and life. Praise for Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates “Superb.”—New York Post “Dangerous? Wicked? Forbidden? You bet. . . . Pour yourself a bowl of chips and dig in.”—Daily News, New York “Robbins is a great writer . . . and definitely a provocative rascal.”—The Tennessean “Whoever said truth is stranger than fiction never read a Tom Robbins novel. . . Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals.”—San Diego Union-Tribune

Internationally bestselling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins’ legendary memoir—wild tales of his life and times, both at home and around the globe. Tom Robbins’ warm, wise, and wonderfully weird novels—including Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates—provide an entryway into the frontier of his singular imagination. Madcap but sincere, pulsating with strong social and philosophical undercurrents, his irreverent classics have introduced countless readers to natural born hitchhiking cowgirls, born-again monkeys, a philosophizing can of beans, exiled royalty, and problematic redheads. In Tibetan Peach Pie, Robbins turns that unparalleled literary sensibility inward, stitching together stories of his unconventional life, from his Appalachian childhood to his globetrotting adventures —told in his unique voice that combines the sweet and sly, the spiritual and earthy. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become over the course of half a century a poet-interruptus, an air force weatherman, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counter-culture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters. Robbins offers intimate snapshots of Appalachia during the Great Depression, the West Coast during the Sixties psychedelic revolution, international roving before homeland security monitored our travels, and New York publishing when it still relied on trees. Written with the big-hearted comedy and mesmerizing linguistic invention for which he is known, Tibetan Peach Pie is an invitation into the private world of a literary legend. “A rollicking reminiscence of his Appalachian upbringing, his spiral through the psychedelic ’60s, and his unconventional path to literary stardom.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage is, as Robert Macfarlane says in his introduction, ''one of the most sustained, intensive and imaginative studies of a place that has ever been carried out''. That place is one of the most mysterious and oldest inhabited landscapes in the world, the islands of Aran off the west coast of Ireland. Tim Robinson''s epic exploration of the desolate, storm-lashed, limestone rocks, which have already haunted generations of Irish writers, takes the form of a clockwise journey around the coast. Every cliff, inlet and headland reveals layers of myth and historical memory, and Robinson makes beautifully crafted observations about the habits of birds, plants and the humans who lived there and endured, leaving records in stone - on the walls, cairns and ancient forts - in story and in oral tradition.

“[A] fascinating new book about mafia boss Alfonso D’Arco, who became the federal government’s most successful cooperator.” —The Village Voice Alfonso “Little Al” D’Arco, the former acting boss of the Luchese organized crime family, was the highest-ranking mobster to ever turn government witness when he flipped in 1991. His decision to flip prompted many others to make the same choice, including John Gotti’s top aide, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, and his testimony sent more than fifty mobsters to prison. In Mob Boss, award-winning news reporters Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins team up for this unparalleled account of D’Arco’s life and the New York mob scene that he embraced for four decades. Until the day he switched sides, D’Arco lived and breathed the old-school gangster lessons he learned growing up in Brooklyn and fine-tuned on the mean streets of Little Italy. But when he learned he was marked to be whacked, D’Arco quit the mob. His defection decimated his crime family and opened a window on mob secrets going back a hundred years. After speaking with D’Arco, the authors reveal unprecedented insights, exposing shocking secrets and troublesome truths about a city where a famous pizza parlor doubled as a Mafia center for multi-million-dollar heroin deals, where hit men carried out murders dressed as women, and where kidnapping a celebrity newsman’s son was deemed appropriate revenge for the father’s satirical novel. Capeci and Robbins spent hundreds of hours in conversation with D’Arco, and exhausted many hours more fleshing out his stories in this riveting narrative that takes readers behind the famous witness testimony for a comprehensive look at the Mafia in New York City.

When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you - an ambitious, though ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker - are convinced you are facing the Weekend From Hell.You don''t know the half of it! Obviously, before the market reopens on Monday, you''re going to have to scramble and scheme to cover your butt, but there''s no way you can anticipate the baffling disappearance of a 300-pound psychic, the fall from grace of a born-again monkey, or the intrusion in your life of a tattooed stranger intent on blowing your mind and most of your fuses. Over these fateful three days, you are jerked from one trial and one revelation to another; forced to confront things ranging from mysterious African rituals to legendary amphibians, from tarot card bombshells to street violence, from your own sexuality to outer space.The weekend isn''t from Hell, it''s from Sirius the Dog Star. And by the time it''s over, the glide path of your destiny has been knocked widely askew.You may or may not be a better person, you may or may not have found love, the world may or may not be a different place, yet cosmic connections have been established that cannot be broken.And as an indication of just how strange it has all become, you - prosaic, materialistic, irritable you - are left with a complete understanding of the surprisingly serious phrase ''half asleep in frog pajamas''.

Ein Jude und ein Araber eröffnen gemeinsam ein Restaurant gegenüber dem New Yorker UNO-Gebäude. Da solch ein Ort der Völkerverständigung militanten Fundamentalisten aller Seiten ein Dorn im Auge sein muss, gehen bald die Bombendrohungen ein. Eine phantastische Geschichte. Auf den Seiten tanzen – wild und erotisch wie Salome – die verrücktesten Gestalten, die schärfsten Sprüche und die provokantesten Gedanken. «‹Salomes siebter Schleier› ist Tom Robbins'' Meisterwerk ... eine wahre, wohlige Lust zu lesen.» (Berliner Morgenpost)

An der Börse in Seattle stürzen die Kurse ab. Die Börsenmaklerin Gwendolyn Mati befürchtet, mit ihren nicht ganz sauberen Spekulationen baden zu gehen. Sie strapaziert all ihren Grips, um den Kopf aus der Schlinge zu ziehen, und wird in schicksalhafte Abenteuer verstrickt. «Der ‹Halbschlaf im Froschpyjama› wird Ihnen den Schlaf rauben, mindestens eine Nacht lang.» (NDR)

Ein CIA-Agent unterwegs im Auftrag der Großmutter Was haben ein zur Nonne gewordenes Nacktmodell, ein Urwaldmagier, eine Großmutter, eine reizvolle Lolita und der Papst gemein? Sie sind Albtraum und Erlösung für CIA-Agent Switters: ein vom Staat bezahlter Anarchist, ein knarretragender Pazifist und ein keuscher Lebemann, den nur zwei Fragen umtreiben: wie man Frauen ins Bett kriegt und wie man die bedrohte Weltordnung rettet. Switters ist ein Held, wie er im Buche steht. Aber nur in diesem! «Der wildeste Schriftsteller der Welt!» (Financial Times)

Fausse gitane mais vraie voyante, la belle Amanda et son mari John Paul Ziller, artiste et magicien inséparable de son babouin, ouvrent un zoo et un stand de hot-dogs au bord de l''autoroute. Là, ils rétablissent le cirque de puces comme art populaire et le culte de la fécondité comme religion ultime. Quand débarque leur ami Plucky Purcell, ancien joueur de football et dealer à ses heures, les ennuis commencent. Ayant par accident infiltré une armée secrète du Vatican, Plucky s''est retrouvé à Rome où il a découvert le corps momifié du Christ oublié dans une catacombe. Après l''avoir dérobé et ramené aux États-Unis, il vient le cacher dans leur zoo et remet l''avenir de la civilisation occidentale entre leurs mains. Mais le FBI et la CIA veillent. Une bien étrange attraction est un livre foisonnant qui repousse les frontières de l''imagination et nous entraîne au cœur des sixties. Ce roman fantasque, mi-divertissement apocalyptique mi-suspense métaphysique, répond avec génie aux questions fondamentales de notre époque.

Switters, agent peu conventionnel de la CIA, épicurien à la libido débridée, se rend dans la forêt amazonienne pour libérer le perroquet de sa grand-mère, grande prêtresse du piratage informatique. Il y sera victime d''un sortilège lancé par un étrange chaman à la tête en forme de pyramide. Rendu infirme par cette malédiction, Switters échoue au Moyen-Orient chez des nonnes militant pour la contraception. Il y découvrira l''amour, ainsi qu''une prophétie mystérieuse jadis dictée par la Vierge à Fatima et qui contient le secret d''un nouvel ordre mondial. De l''Amazonie au Vatican, ce roman d''aventures de Tom Robbins est une épopée picaresque balayant d''un trait de plume plein d''humour quelques-uns des plus grands mystères de l''humanité.

À la veille de ses six ans, Gracie s''interroge. Quel est ce mystérieux liquide que les adultes ingurgitent avec une telle satisfaction ? Si son père élude ses questions sur la bière, l''Oncle Moe s''avère plus loquace. Il propose même à sa nièce de l''emmener visiter la Brasserie Redhook. Mais quand elle apprend que la visite n''aura pas lieu, Gracie a un accès de colère et engloutit une canette trouvée dans le frigo. Elle voit alors surgir la sympathique Fée de la Bière. Commence alors pour la fillette un voyage fabuleux et instructif au pays de l''alcool couleur de miel. B comme bière est un conte enchanteur dont la lecture a l''art d''enivrer petits et grands. À consommer sans modération.

Gwendolyn, jeune trader ambitieuse, voit son univers s''effondrer avec les marchés financiers la veille de Pâques. C''est le début du pire week-end de sa vie : alors qu''elle s''imagine déjà privée d''avenir, le singe kleptomane de son petit ami s''enfuit, un ancien as de la finance de retour de Tombouctou s''immisce dans son existence et sa meilleure amie se volatilise, tandis qu''un étrange médecin japonais débarque à Seattle pour y présenter un remède miracle contre le cancer. Au milieu de tout ce désordre, Gwen devra faire un choix : continuer de poursuivre le rêve américain ou partir à l''aventure. Dénonçant le consumérisme de l''Amérique et ses désirs de gloire, Comme la grenouille sur son nénuphar est un chef-d''oeuvre d''humour et de fantaisie.

Leigh-Cheri, vingt ans, rousse, végétarienne, idéaliste et princesse de son état, vit en exil près de Seattle avec ses parents. Elle vient de quitter la fac, le coeur brisé par un membre de l''équipe de football et ne croit plus en l''amour. Mais alors qu''elle assiste à un festival écolo à Hawaï, au milieu des scientifiques et politiciens assemblés, elle rencontre Bernard Mickey Wrangle, hors-la-loi en cavale surnommé le Pivert. Il est roux comme elle, il veut dynamiter le festival, et il va lui prouver que l''amour existe.

Tom Robbins, surnommé l''écrivain « le plus dangereux du monde », raconte les expériences qui ont marqué sa vie. Le parcours de celui qui clame comme principe « la joie avant tout » est haut en couleur. Ce petit-fils de prédicateurs baptistes né en Caroline du Nord a suivi un cirque avant de se prendre pour un poète. Il a ensuite été bombardé météorologiste en Corée après s''être engagé dans l''armée, puis il a été DJ pour une radio locale après des études de journalisme, critique d''art dans un journal de Seattle, pour enfin devenir un romancier de renommée mondiale et un héros culturel.

Dotée à sa naissance des deux plus longs pouces du monde, Sissy Hankshaw décide de devenir la plus grande autostoppeuse des États-Unis. Partant ainsi à l''aventure, Sissy fera une série de rencontres étonnantes qui transformeront sa vie : la Comtesse, magnats des déodorants intimes ; Julian Gitche, l''Indien qui sera un temps son mari ; le docteur Robbins, psychiatre farfelu. Et surtout les cow-girls du ranch de la Rose de Caoutchouc qui revendiquent l''égalité avec les hommes sous la conduite de la belle et sauvage Bonanza Jellybean. Dans ce roman drôle et excentrique, Tom Robbins bouscule allègrement les conventions morales et littéraires. De ce chef-d''œuvre de la contre-culture, rien ni personne ne sortira indemne.

Winter Sports.

This volume contains more than 20 interviews with the acclaimed author of "Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Still Life With Woodpecker, B Is for Beer," and many other novels.

Roman jubilatoire et récit d''aventures, Féroces infirmes retour des pays chauds conte les tribulations de Switters, un agent de la CIA d''un type un peu particulier. Anarchiste convaincu, rebelle et joyeusement immature, il est en effet davantage intéressé par le sexe, la drogue et le rock''n roll que par la défense des intérêts américains. Nous le suivons dans un périple qui, depuis l''Amazonie, le mène au Moyen-Orient où, venu apporter des masques à gaz aux Kurdes, il découvre un couvent oublié de nonnes françaises excommuniées, dont la mère supérieure a servi de modèle nu à Matisse. Ce couvent renferme un terrible secret, celui de la troisième prophétie de Fatima, qui entraînera notre héros jusqu''au Vatican où il devra y affronter des forces obscures prêtes à tout pour dissimuler au monde que l''insolence suprême et la sagesse ultime résident dans l''énergie mystérieuse du rire. Faisant preuve d''un esprit d''irrévérence absolument moderne, Tom Robbins, fermement convaincu que " l''humour et la joie de vivre sont les armes les plus subversives du monde ", remet au goût du jour dans cette épopée picaresque et tumultueuse le sens du merveilleux et l''allégresse qui font les grands romans.