****First off..forget Formatting...this one is Free Form, all the way***


5 Stars: This book held my interest for over a month (I'm a slow reader, okay!)....like Gravity's Rainbow it's about Everything..and No One Thing, and it's never boring...Then there's the Wordplay..the lovely English language the most versatile of toys. Mr Robbins spins that top for all it's worth..in his hands it's worth a lot. Zany, crazy, surreal..the gang's all here, with pathos and sincerity in tow.


Art, and its carry-on baggage: I came to this book after reading The Goldfinch and didn't expect to find another book that dealt with Art. While Ms Tartt's book dealt with ART (writ large, and full of meaning, however misguided) Mr Robbins' book dealt with Art as a process (thanks to Ellen Cherry Charles!) full of foibles and failures. I don't know which book I prefer.



The whole megillah in the Middle East: Oy..from suicide bombers to Palestinian massacres....nothing has changed since this book was published (1990) and I don't want to get into the political side of things...Israelis and Palestinians have been killing each other since Isaac and Ishmael..and nothing will change any time soon..This book takes it all the way back to Jezebel (no "hussy")....and Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils (of Self-Deception)..which I never figured out the specifics...guess you'll have to read the book!


Five inanimate objects on a road trip across the USA (sans Chevrolet)...bound for Armageddon, er, Jerusalem. The "Third Temple" is coming, soon....don't be square...be there...


**in spite of this travesty of a review...I did love this book, and Tom Robbins, the author...don't shy away from the "weird" aspect..that's what fuels his novels**

5 Stars...all the way

The thing that makes Tom Robbins thrilling is the way he declares absolute truths, bestows significance to the overlooked, and dismisses everything else with complete and unarguable disdain. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was so right on that my best friend tattooed the pin-up on its cover to her arm. Still Life with Woodpecker caused me to collect empty Camel cigarette boxes for years (the secret to life: choice tobacco). His philosophizing and sexualizing were an essential part of my formative years.

Yet all I could think about while reading Skinny Legs and All was: Tom Robbins is a White Man.

Choice is one thing, but the choices of this author in this work wreaked of all the nasty manipulations dispelled in Privilege 101. Though it took potshots at Jews and Palestinians, religion, art, and the South, this book never really challenged power. He'd wax long and elegantly on Goddess imagery and condemn the Church patriarchy, but then create shallow women characters who are empty stereotypes of "woman"-- sexually demanding football haters in spiked stiletto heals. He tries for eternal truths to explain the mystery of Middle Eastern violence while repeatedly dismissing rap music and all kinds of urban Black culture as beauty-free without a second thought-- what kind of violence does that perpetrate? His characters are the sum of their identities and little else. Unpack your invisible knapsack already and recognize that the world doesn't need one more take on this overdone (whitemale) version of Truth.

Also, the inanimate object storyline was unfinished and boring, and he never really articulated the erotic allure of Salome; it was like he could only capture her through how others reacted to her.

This was my first experience with Robbins, and it was a good one! It took a little to get into (very different writing style than I'm used to), but once I did I was dedicated to reading it. Some of what he talks about in the book also spurned some light research on my part separately, so I even got to learn a few new things. What a combo!

In any case, "Skinny Legs and All" is a good, engaging read, and well worth the time you invest.

Tom Robbin's "Skinny Legs and All" offers both a quirky and insightful glance into the historic struggle surrounding the controversial land of modern day Israel. Fact mixes with fiction to form quite an unbelievable, yet wholly possible tale that fluctuates between absurd fantasy, keen character development, American cultural critique and Religious history lessons. Some parts of this book remind me of philosophical poetry, while others conjure a rather basic tone of new age idealism. While I love the manner in which this book presents its multitudinous ideas, and likewise feel rather attached to the emotional states of its characters, I was blown away by neither theme nor plot. I found the read more like a mental exercise: challenging (as most any read can be) and intriguing (specifically the historic facts pertaining to Israel/Palestine).

This tainted slab of ham turned out to be a massive milestone in my life of reading stuff. It marked the moment when I decided that a book DID NOT need to be finished once it was started. A wildly masturbatory author, Robbins lays metaphors on everything in triplicate and quadruplicate, spilling similes all over the place like a chimp splatters semen, like a bubbling fountain of tangy fondue cheese, like hand cream pumped from a bellows, like an elephant stomping on a sack of silly putty...

It was exhilarating to close this retarded tome barely a third of the way through. Completely loathing the way it started, I could give a flying fuck how it ended. I felt light and giggly, knowing I'd never slog my way through a bad volume again for some ridiculous personal rule. I toss partially read books in the donation bin all the time now.

Remember life is short, don't waste it reading...

For judicious, yet unsettling, use of metaphor check out:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97...

I read most of it; skimmed through the end before a book club discussion. I think the inanimate object was clever and could be amusing. I grew to like Boomer and Ellen Cherry (could the names be anymore hyperbolic?) Most of it was annoying to me. The characters reminded me of something that Zadie Smith would conjure up. However, they lack the same depth and compassion she gives them.

. "..the chill that was settling upon Manhattan felt as invigoratingly decadent as the breath of a jack-o'-lantern."

"...a luncheon crowd that could have fit into a rubber life raft and still have left room for the suppressed flatulence of a diplomat."

Come on.

I think there was a good story here but it's buried beneath a lot of glitter and b.s. designed to impress and provoke guffaws. It's like a piece of fine china buried in a pile of leaves with a circus clown dancing on it. hardy har har

Robbins has always used his story-telling gifts to deliver a message, and it is always iconoclastic in nature, while promoting the goal of the self-actualized person. This novel, in my humble opinion, is a flat-out, in-your-face, wonderfully entertaining presentation of his 'philosophy' and is worth reading even in you read only the final portion of the book.
I think of Pynchon a lot when I read Robbins, but,to me, the difference is that Robbins offers a solution to the problem of what to do with your 'enlightened' state. So, in the midst of a world that has been screwed up from the beginning, there is a means of 'salvation,' if you will, but it requires the courage to leave behind the comforting 'isms' that we all, and I do mean all, have been beaten over the head with so often that we now find them comforting.
However, that said, if you are just looking for a really good 'read' by a writer who delights in presenting wildly creative and entertaining stories, you will have a very good time.

Had I the gift what I would express could easily echo Skinny Legs and All. This intelligent concise witty and insightful expression of religion and politics resonates so completely with mine it could have come completely from my mind.The absurdity of religions contradictions are so cleverly mocked and scorned in a manner that results in laughing out loud.

This is Tom Robbins opus on the awesome evil that results from the mixture of politics with religion. When Boomer Petway heads to Jerusalem to bomb the Dome on the Rock in order to hasten Armageddon at the behest of his Falwellian pastor while Issac and Ishmaels eatery is targeted by both Muslims and Jews as Salome sheds the seven veils the revelations and insights are thick as thieves.
I understand if your belief system leaves you offended. Paul and the christians (small C intended) are exposed for their perversions of the intentions of Christ. This all out attack on the perils of religion strengthened my Faith in GOD without the trappings of the church.
Skinny Legs and All is a miracle

I'll put this on my favorite books shelf. It's a story full of silliness and wackiness while also being stuffed to the brim with philosophy and religious studies? This book ended with a climax akin to the climaxes he writes about. The last 50 pages feel like you're driving a spaceship into the sun. Then you come out the other end and feel wiser, but you aren't yet sure why.
Highly recommend.

Horny prince, I love you so much.
This is not the hardest you’ve danced but it is still excellent dancing. Better than most others can shimmy.
Leavened yeast, the Middle East. Pubic triangles and performance art.

This was my first time reading a book by this author. When I started reading, I particularly was drawn to the thoughts and experiences of the “inanimate” objects. I liked the strong feminine side portrayed in the book, making me realise how uncommon this still is. A book I have read in a long time whose after taste will remain for many days.

I am a Tom Robbins fan, but I was a little disappointed in this book. Fierce Invalids is still my all-time favorite, closely followed by Jitterbug Perfume. Both are MUST-reads.

My whole theory on how Tom Robbins writes a book:
--step 1: find some random unlikely stuff to be associated-- people, places, things, or topics.
--step 2: weave them together using witty humour, a renegade main character, some sort of historical or theological revelation tied into all random people places or things.

I'm used to his ways and even though he has a formula of some sort, I love him and it's entertainment and originality every time. But.. a can of beans, a spoon, a sock, a conch shell, an ancient painted stick-- why are these main characters? I got over it, but still. The end was still good and tied just about everything together in a nice little sensical bow.