But the occasional book catches my attention, and right now is one of those times.
A few notes:
- This is another Douwntown Long Beach Dollar Bookstore discovery.
- This turned out to be Tom Robbins' first novel, and was published in 1971(!!!). I had no idea that Robbins was publishing that early--I always figured him for later that at least Gravity's Rainbow.
- This is, maybe unlike Trout Fishing in America, an actual Sixties touchstone/icon.
- It it pretty good; obviously from Robbins (if you know his work, like Murakami, you can tell who's writing it is); and it is nearly distracting me from my studies.
- I painstakingly wrote this post during a break in the action on a loaned iPad.
I say "nearly" because I'm not spending time at the house reading.
Good stuff.
I'll report back later on this summer when I finally get a chance to finish it (I know you're both waiting with baited breath).
Dan, go for it! I haven't read the draft, but I'd love to read the post!
Great minds, right? I was determined to post something today so I logged in. Standby and set ALL machines to... AWESOME!!!!
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The only thing I read by Tom Robbins was "Villa Incognito" (2003). I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's completely irreverent - the main story is about ex-American GIs who stay in Southeast Asia after the Vietnam war to supply heroin to hospices, as a kind of charitable service. There's also this very cool and offbeat story line - it's lore, actually - about Japanese raccoon dogs (tanukis - Google 'em, they're a real species) who mate with human women, and when the woman conceives, she gives birth to a girl who becomes a great teacher and sexual being. It's got erudition, cool characters, trouble with international cops, mysterious disappearances ... it's very cool and very unorthodox. Kind of like its author, seems like.
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