took me so long bc I didn’t really like it? Why as a man is Tom writing about feminine sexuality? Makes me uncomfortable!

Although I have determined that it is impossible for me to pick a favorite Tom Robbins novel, this one is strong in the running.

Ellen Cherry Charles isn't my favorite Robbins woman, but in many ways, she is his most sympathetic female protagonist. Caught between her art, her stupid husband, and her hypocritical uncle, she made me want to jump into the pages and help her straighten everything out.

As with all his other novels, as I read it, I feel that he's got it right, that almost everyone else has it wrong, and that if the world learned to think a little more like him, it would be a far, far, better place. That's not to say that I feel Robbins thinks he's telling us the answer, he's just asking us to think, and not assume that the answer is always apparent, or the societally accepted answer, or even possible to be discovered. In this book it feels especially imperative because a main focus is religion (discussed in terms of the Arab and the Jew who own a restaurant together across the street from the U.N. and Ellen Cherry's fire-and-brimstone-preaching uncle, Buddy*).










* Whenever I think of Buddy, I think of the line from the T.Rex song "Baby Boomerang" that goes "your uncle with an alligator chained to his leg/dangles you your freedom then he offers you his bed".

Kitabı bir arkadaşımda görmüştüm ve Parfümün Dansı'ndan başka Tom Robbins'e dair bir fikrim yoktu. Ama artık herhangi bir yazı okuduğumda kendisini teşhis edebileceğime şüphem yok, o kadar kendine has yazmış.

Kitabın değindiği birçok konu var aslında. En önemlisi semavi dinler, bunların tarihi ve İsrail-Amerika-filistin ilişkisi-olayların geçtiği önemli yerlerden biri de aslında dinlerinin hakikatleriyle uzaktan yakından alakadar olmayan bir Arap ve bir Yahudi'nin New York'ta açtığı bir restoran. Emin olun Kudüs'ün tarihini hiç böyle okuyamazsınız başka bir yerde. Kirli Çorap, Boyalı Sopa, Sedefli Deniz Helezonu, Bay/Bayan Konserve ve Tatlı Kaşığı ile başlıyor bu tarihi anlatmaya(antropomorfizmin gözünü çıkarmış esasında). Tarihe birçok mitsel öğe de karışıyor ve bizim bildiğimizden biraz farklılaşıyor. Hatta bu dinlerin din adamlarının kabul etmeyeceği şekilde.

Yazarın dinlerle ilgili dediklerine katılmak durumundayım-ancak ve ancak "din" kelimesinin önüne "şu an insanların yaşadığı haliyle" ibaresini getirmek şartıyla. Dinin kitlelerin siyanürü olduğunu söylemesi ve toplumları idare edebilmenin, ateşleyebilmenin en kolay yolu olarak göstermesi bu bağlamda onu haksız kılmıyor.Gerçi yazarın tüm bunlara Hıristiyan bir toplum bireyinin gözüyle baktığına dikkat etmek gerek, dördüncü tül düşerken dinin Tanrı'yı daralttığından onu insanlaştırdığından yakınırken buluyoruz onu çünkü. Kendi halkıyla ve onların dinini yaşayışıyla ne kadar cesurca dalga geçebilen biri olsa da oryantalist bakış açısından da yırtamamış yazarımız. İsrail'in yaptığı zulmü haksız bulurken Filistinlilerle onları aynı açıdan değerlendiriyor.

Yazar, ortalama bir Amerikalı'nın genelde dünya özelde ise Ortadoğu'yla ilgili pek bir fikrinin olmayışıyla- ki Ellen Cherry ressam olarak belki ortalamanın üstünde bile sayılabilir ama Ortadoğu'nun ona çağrıştırdığı "kilim"den başka bir şey değildir - dalgasını geçmiş, hatta onları biraz aşağılamıştır.Neticede Kudüs'ten bahsedildiğinde gündüz bir barda birasını yudumlayıp yer fıstığını yiyen bir Amerikalı: "Yahudileri Araplardan üstün tuttuğumdan filan değil,...,Ama terörizmi durdurmamız ve şu petrolü almamız lazım." demekte.

Sanata yönelik düşüncelerini de Ellen C. üzerinden bize iletiyor. Modern sanatçıların, kendilerinden öncekileri tekrar etmekten başka çareleri olmadığından bunu reddettikleri ve yenilgiyi kabul ederek bugünkü modern sanatı oluşturduklarını söylüyor. Sorun şu ki bunu para için yapıyorlar.

Üslupta mizah öne çıkıyor, kahkahalarla gülebileceğiniz yerler var. Bence fazla gereksiz ama bir Amerikalı'ya göre yeterli seviyede cinsellik var- yani o kadar cinsellik olmasa da konular dağılmazdı sanki.

Salome'nin tülleri insanın çıplak gerçekleri anlamasını engelleyen birer inanç perdesi( cinsellik anlayışı, siyaset,nesnelerin yorumlanışı, din, para, zaman gibi yedi tül-yedinciyi okuyunca görün) olarak meteforlaştırılmış.

Neyse ne demiş yazar: "Ama yine de müzikal bir şey bu, küçük bir şiir"

Tom Robbins writing style is a whimsical tapestry of simile and metaphor, equal parts poignant and hilarious. With a deft hand for the absurd, Robbin's tackles one of my favorite subjects- the "bad women" of the bible, and weaves an epic adventure replete with a sentient spoon and stick, a giant turkey trailer, and Middle Eastern politics.

I started this book at least three times. Tom Robbins is one of my favorie authors, and this was his only novel I hadn't read. However, each of the times I started it I found myself becoming very disappointed. At the beginning it was too weird, or trying to be too cute, even for Tom Robbins. Ellen Cherry and Boomer driving across country in a turkey. A talking and walking spoon, dirty sock and can of beans. It was too much. I couldn't take it seriously. He was trying to be too 'Tom Robbins like' or something.

But when I made a decision to finally plow through all of this beginning crap I fell in love, and now this is my favorite Tom Robbins novel. All the silly and crazy things at the beginning, like the turkey and dirty sock, etc., fall into place, and make sense soon enough. When it all started to come together it definitely restored my faith in Robbins, and made me love him even more. He pulls out all the stops in this book. And though it was published in 1990, it's still feels so very new and very relevant now. Of course, the problems in the Middle East have only gotten worse.

I think this is my favourite of all Tom Robbins books. The subplot of the can of beans,conch shell, dirty sock, and painted stick was so entertaining at points I felt like reading ahead to see what was happening to them. Tom Robbins is the only person who has ever made me care about the welfare of said items. The main story of Boomer and Ellen Cherry is also entertaining in the usual, unusual way of Tom Robbins writing. When the dance of the seven veils is described my mind was blown. Each veil as it is shed by the dancer with its philosophical meanings had me jotting down their importance so I could refer back to it. This book is a great mixed of humour, philosophy, religion, the sometime ridiculous way of the art world and great insights to human nature. If I was stranded on a desert island, and could pick five books, this would definitely be one of them. Enjoy Tom Robbins wacky yet poignant world.

Και τα εφτά πέπλα πέφτουν και αφήνουν τα ίχνη από το απόλυτο ανθρωπιστικό μανιφέστο σε έναν κόσμο που δεν θα αλλάξει ποτέ.
Όποιος καταλάβει θα κερδίσει την αιώνια πορφύρα που λέει τα μυστικά της μετουσίωσης και του θεϊκού.
Εξαίσιο. Μαγικό και μαγεμένο.
Ο Τομ Ρόμπινς γράφει, παρέα με μια Κάλτσα, μια / έναν τύπο κονσέρβα φασολάκια με κρέας, παλιά και αιώνια φυλαχτά σε χαρτί πορφυρού χρώματος , γράφει ιστορία !…

Το πρώτο πέπλο κρύβει την καταπίεση της οικουμενικής θεάς, σκεπάζει το σεξουαλικό πρόσωπο του πλανήτη,καλύπτει τον αρχαίο θεμέλιο λίθο του ερωτικού τρόμου που που στηρίζει τη θρησκεία του σύγχρονου ανθρώπου.

Τα υπόλοιπα καθορίζονται από το χορό της Σελήνης.



Καλή ανάγνωση
Πολλούς και σεμνούς ασπασμούς

Call me a philistine or whatever (read some reviews that thoroughly trashed this book) but I fairly loved this book! Yeah, so it was easy reading and chock full of goofy simile and metaphors to boot but again, dang-it all it kept me humming along like a spurred filly (oops, now I'm spewing crappy stuff too, oh well). Tom Robbins like Jim Harrison write some funny shiyte!

I’m admittedly torn over this book. The writing was entertaining, and the perspectives of the inanimate objects were truly hilarious. There was so much to love. That said, I could not for the life of me seem to sit down and read the story for significant lengths of time. While the through-line for the plot was apparent, I didn’t feel a pull to keep going. And the philosophical components were a struggle for me to get through (something about my brain rejects that kind of information). Overall, I’m incredibly impressed with Tom Robbins’ ability to weave together the seemingly random into a cohesive book.

It was orgasmic !! after a long tme, i felt awe, joy, perplexed how i did not discover this delightful author before..He truly has transcended mundane and meta physics..in short. I just keep going back savoring his irreverent narrative. While the story in itself kind of gives context, he digresses,(can i say that ?)free assosiates in such JamesJoycean manner, disects a distinct, obscure point, all along making you laugh with his similies and anaologies.. and somehow ties them all together into a beautiful, multi-dimensional collage.

I recommend all his books! Essential reading if you like humor elegantly rolled and presented with treacle of philosophy, a side of metaphysics, and such a serving of mundane(or the elevation of), in a cuisine you never tasted before..Finger licking good !! Yum !

Skinny Legs And All was an incredible read, a stupendous book. Tom Robbins handles words skillfully and playfully. He’s intricate and vigorous in his wildness; every time you think you’re getting lost in the story (or more so the story of his characters intertwined with conceptual and philosophical adventures, lengthy artistic descriptions, spiritual sidequests and historical recollection), he catches you back. You are always exactly where he wants you to be.
I actually started the book a while ago, but it took me forever to get through the first half. Not because the story was boring but because every time i would turn a page, it would require a level of concentration I couldn’t always gather and my wordreference page open on the side to understand the words being used. Besides, he’s a master of metaphors; he finds thousands of ways to allow you to visualise the images he has in mind. So it was a bit of work to really get immersed in these when I couldn’t understand some words. But I still found it exquisite overall.

Without realising it, I therefore postponed the second half for this summer, and man, I’m so glad I kept on reading. How everything unfolds when the last veils fall, and the cohesiveness of the end with the rest of the story left me very satisfied. I am generally not proficient in making summaries, and this story makes it even more complicated to write out a blurb. I will therefore just recommend it, and well, you’ll have to take my word (and that of many other reviewers) for it.

The book was complex, it was a marathon more than a sprint to read, and I enjoyed every bit of this experience. Thank you momo for lending me this book, it will be back in your bookshelf very soon. Also, it made me want to read more of the author’s work. But if I start another book of his, maybe i’ll invest in a pocket dictionary first ;)

Def unlike any book I’ve ever read before but I kinda hated it and also didn’t rlly know what was going on most of the time