Villa Incognito was part psychedelic dream, part political philosophy, part irreverent humor, and part pop culture references. It's too bad all of these parts were not woven together well. I enjoyed the humor and the psychedelic dream stuff, but that didn't even carry this one through, nor did any of it make the story possible to follow, if that was indeed the point. Tom Robbins was okay here, but not quite on top of his game. I have read better ones by him.

I really enjoy  Tom Robbins very much, but this book just really fell flat with me. I'd read one or two other Robbins books just before this one, so perhaps it was partly just general Robbins-fatigue, but  Villa Incognito really felt like a lazy mishmash of generic Robbins themes and humor. When I read this book most of the time my mind was going "Blah blah beautiful prose about drinking and drugs and sex and wacky characters blah blah." I was really just bored with it. I could see how if this was someone's first crack at Robbins' work, it might work for you, but this one really fell flat for me.

Ok… not my favorite Tom Robbins book but it was alright.
A little mid

knock, knock. whos there? retirement!

This is another case of a great author taking some time off from writing and then getting caught up in his own hype. The allusions and connections were so forced, it was hard not to feel like it was a different author altogether trying his/her best to write like Tom Robbins. Disappointing.

Χιούμορ, φιλοσοφία, κριτική του σύγχρονου τρόπου ζωής και πολλά υπέροχα τανούκι...!

Το τελείωσα χωρίς να καταλάβω ακριβώς τι γίνεται με τον σπόρο και γιατί Ο Τανούκι τον φύτεψε στο στόμα της μικρής και τι γίνεται..και και και...ναι, ένα μπάχαλο!
Η ιστορία δε λέει και πολλά(3/5), το ύφος όμως και η αποστροφή στο κοινό είναι που κρατάν τον αναγνώστη!(5/5)....

Just because you’re naked
Doesn’t mean you’re sexy,
Just because you’re cynical
Doesn’t mean you’re cool.
You may tell the greatest lies
And wear a brilliant disguise
But you can’t escape the eyes
Of the one who sees right through you.

In the end what will prevail
Is your passion not your tale,
For love is the Holy Grail,
Even in Cognito.

So better listen to me, sister,
And pay close attention, mister:
It’s very good to play the game,
Amuse the gods, avoid the pain,
But don’t trust fortune, don’t trust fame,
Your real self doesn’t know your name
And in that we’re all the same:
We’re all incognito.

i have not encountered Robbins' skill with words in a long long time.

IT IS WHAT IT IS
YOU ARE WHAT YOU IT
THERE ARE NO MISTAKES

some examples of cunning linguism :P.

"if coitus interruptus was a country, then Tanuki's tail would have been its flag."

not many hours later, after the moon had set, when the night was so black not even Michael Jackson's cosmetic surgeon could have lightened its hue."

"Eventually, they started transposing their hunting fantasies onto cave walls in the forms of pictures, first as an attempt at practical magic and later for the strange, unexpected pleasure they discovered in artistic creation. Time passed. Art came off the walls and turned into ritual. Ritual became religion. Religion spawned science. Science led to business. And big business, if it continues on its present mindless, voracious trajectory, could land those of us lucky enough to survive its ultimate legacy back into the caves again."

"on the other side of the door, there was silence. then, finally, the familiar sound of water being strangled by a jealous lover. the old-fashioned flush."

"hard times and funky living can season the soul, true enough, but joy is the yeast that makes it rise."

"Religion is little more than a transaction in which troubled people trade their souls for temporary and wholly illusionary psychological comfort--the old give-it-up-in-order-to-save-it routine. religion lead us to believe that the soul is the ultimate family jewel and that in return for our mindless obedience, they can secure it for us in their vaults, or at least insure it against fire and theft. They are mistaken."

"In the end, perhaps we should simply imagine a joke; a long joke that is being continually retold in an accent too think and too strange to ever be completely understood. Life is that joke, my friends. The soul is its punch line."

"Ink is the blood of language, paper is its flesh."

"was Jesus an enlightened being that understood maya (the illusionary nature of the material world) and the folly of seeking happiness through wealth, or was he merely a humourless, undersexed, masochistic proto-communist with an olive branch up his butt?"

"in our declaration of independence we consecrate ourselves a nation to the pursuit of happiness. that in itself is an admission of habitual discontent. one needn't pursue what one already possesses."

"there is no activity in the cosmos more unvarying, more predictable than the rate at which uranium turns into lead. that's a good thing. if the universe clock was based on the rate at which novelty turns into routine, we might never show up at the dentist on time. yet, sooner or later, the 'oh wow' does decay into the 'ho-hum'."

"time has a big mouth and a small brain."

Once again Robbins leads you down the rabbit hole, where it's best to just sit back, take in the scenary, and see where you go.

Tuhle potrhlou literatur mám bytostně rád.

Κλασικός Ρόμπινς. Όλα τα στοιχεία που με έκαναν να τον αγαπήσω είναι εδώ. Χιούμορ που αγαπάς ή μισείς, φιλοσοφικά ζητήματα που τα σκέφτεσαι για καιρό, έρωτες, πάθη, ακόμη και εκείνοντο συναίσθημα των πρώτων (αρκετών) σελίδων που αναρωτιέσαι αν αυτό που διαβάζεις θα καταλήξει κάπου ή απλά αμπελοφιλοσοφεί και η συνέχεια που έρχεται να δικαιώσει τον συγγραφέα και να σε αφήσει με ανοιχτό το στόμα, χωρίς να σου δίνει μασημένο το νόημα της ζωής. Για καποιους ο Ρόμπινς είναι ένα τρολ. Για άλλους ενα παιδι που γράφει ότι του κατέβει. Για μένα, κάθε του βιβλίο είναι μια ευκαιρία για αναζήτηση του εαυτού μου. Και κάθε φορά το απολαμβάνω

Some gems: ...mischief was actually a benefit to men because, in the end, it forced them into the flexibility and resourcefulness essential to their advancement (p. 19); ...curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions (p.21); when we sleep on someone else's pillow, we sometimes find ourselves having that person's dreams (p. 27); ...But comfort's a form of paralysis. It's stupefying (p. 114); those who willingly accept being conned are as corrupt as those who con them (p. 141); ...could we but jettison our fears and desires, our relaxed egos would serve to keep us well-centered in a permanent, portable Eden (p. 144); we only rise above mediocrity when there's something at stake, and I mean something more consequential than money or reputation (p. 174); the person who cannot welcome ambiguity cannot welcome God (p. 208).