Robbins is a mad genius. All of his books are uniquely his; there isn't another author out there mad enough or genius enough to even try to emulate his voice.
I read this many years ago. Most of the details have faded, but he central plot remains clear: some friends discover the body of Christ, thereby disproving the resurrection and making pretty much all of Christianity a lie. What else to do but to set it up in a roadside attraction (like the giant ball of twine, or the two-headed baby) in Washington state? Soon they're pursued by Vatican hitmen, who have to retrieve the body to save the family business. No one but Robbins could seamlessly morph the Roman Catholic church into the Mafia... I love this guy.

I might have liked this book - the author’s first - better if I’d read it first, but as it happened this was the fourth book by Robbins I read. It is a far less polished story than his others, more prone to meandering (though always in thoughtful and usually entertaining directions) and the characters - though mostly charming - lacked depth in comparison to some of his later inventions. Knowing this is his debut novel, something of an artistic blueprint and clearing of the throat, makes it easy to forgive some of the book’s weaknesses. Still it is filled with imaginative plots, magnetic folks, and a signature wealth of oddball expertise. Always a pleasure reading whatever this man chooses to write about.

τι να εξηγώ και τι να ομολογήσω, για αυτόν τον Μικρό θεούλη. Οτι και να πω θα μοιάζει υπερβολή, αρα του δίνεις
5 αστέρια κι αφήνεις τον επόμενο, αν και εφόσον υπάρξει, να εξηγήσει τα ανεξήγητα Θαύματα

Wow what a crazy book! This is my first Tom Robbins book and I’ve never read anything like it! At first I didn’t know what to think, but as I got into it I had to keep reading! It was so weird and different in a good way. Tom Robbins has a way of writing that is entrancing to the reader. I don’t know how he came up with it, but I very much enjoyed both his original writing style, and the book itself.

Εγω ήμουνα γκρουπι πρώτης γραμμής του Ρομπινς, και, η γραφή του μου άλλαξε τη ζωη, εκει στα 16 με τον Τρυποκάρυδο και ολα τα άλλα του, αλλά μάλλον μεγάλωσα (;) αλλαξανε και οι εποχές, δεν ξέρω..

Απο μενα ειναι 3,5 αστέρια και το υπόλοιπο μισό τιμής ένεκεν

Το βιβλίο αυτό ήρθε στα χέρια μου, ως δώρο γενεθλίων από μια καλή φίλη και συνάδελφο, την Χριστίνα. Είχα διαβάσει ξανά Ρόμπινς. Γνώριζα το ύφος του και θεωρούσα ότι η γραφή του, ήταν, ανέκαθεν, ένα ευχάριστο και ξεκαρδιστικό διάλειμμα από βιβλία, τα οποία περιείχαν βαρύγδουπες ιδέες και βαθιά νοήματα. Ένα λογοτεχνικό επιδόρπιο, αν θέλετε. Έτσι, λοιπόν, μετά τον άνεργο κοσμοπολίτη Φαμπιάν και τον αντισυμβατικό Γιάννη του Σκαρίμπα, αποφάσισα πως είναι ώρα να κάνω το διάλειμμα και να αφεθώ στην ανάλαφρη γραφή του Ρόμπινς και να γνωρίσω, επιτέλους, την Αμάντα. Άλλωστε με περίμενε μήνες, καθήμενη στο ράφι, που την είχα τοποθετήσει.
Ανοίγοντας το βιβλίο, γνώρισα, σχεδόν αμέσως, τα ελεύθερα πνεύματα. Η Αμάντα και ο Τζον Πολ Ζίλερ είναι ένα ζευγάρι το οποίο, απελευθερωμένο από τις όποιες κοινωνικές συμβάσεις, θυμίζουν δύο νέους που γνωρίστηκαν στην εποχή των παιδιών των λουλουδιών. Μαζί τους ο μικρός Θωρ να παρακολουθεί τα συμβάντα με προσοχή – ή /και όχι – και ο Μαρξ Μάρβελους να αμφισβητεί έννοιες όπως διαίσθηση, συναισθηματική νοημοσύνη και μυστικισμό. Το αλλοπρόσαλλο ζευγάρι να μας παρουσιάζει τις περιπέτειες του Πλακί Πουρσέλ, περιπέτειες που, νομοτελειακά, θα τους βάλουν όλους σε μεγάλους μπελάδες. Όλο αυτό, τώρα, με φόντο την επιχείρηση τους, το Λουκανικομάγαζο Προστασίας Άγριων Ζώων «Λογαχος Κεντρικ».

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loved it!! one of my preferred tom robbins's for sure (behind cowgirls and skinny legs)

The first novel by TB but one of the last for me to read. Read partially in Honduras, Brazil and India while on production. I found it beautiful, funny, insightful, full of magic and romance and charm.

This felt like a cheap mix between Kerouac and Vonnegut, with none of the charm of Vonnegut and none of the cutting edge of Kerouac. Once again, another dud from a "100 Must Read" lists.

Amazing books. Super entertaining characters. Writing style was funny and very unique.

I read this years ago when it first came out, but I guess I was too stoned to follow the plot. It's not an easy read. I also remember feeling somewhat self-conscious about it, somewhat embarrassed. Now I find it delightful, if a little off the mark - if you're looking for a period piece, this ain't quite it, though I think it was billed as such. It is a joyful romp with language, something I'm looking for more and more in the books I read.

I want prose to be surprising and complex. I'm in rebellion against the banality of the smooth and succinct writing that's been au courant, and hope it will become au passé. Many of today's books are dumbed down so stoners can follow - thank goodness Tom Robbins wasn't writing for them!

Oh, the inventiveness, in both the story and its telling. Bent and burnished by possibly the same hashish that enlivens some of the book’s most hallucinatory scenes, the writing here feels like the perfect reflection of its time and place, expanding humor and metaphor to new corners of the cosmos while flipping the middle finger at authority. Simultaneously edgy and mainstream, bawdy and intellectual, irreverent and reverent, Tom Robbins populates his book with garter snakes, butterflies, baboons, the FBI, the CIA, the Catholic church and Jesus Christ Himself, who plays a central role in the greatest heist in history. I stopped underlining brilliant passages after I wore out the point on my pencil, but one of my favorites was “…the margin of disbelief slimmed before my eyes and protest died in my throat the way sleepy-lagoon wallpaper dies in the hall of a cheap hotel.” When Tom Robbins died a few weeks ago my oldest brother told me his favorite book of all time was Another Roadside Attraction, so I got myself this copy and read it. I’d previously read only one Robbins novel, Still Life with Woodpecker, and that was probably thirty years ago. I might have thought I knew what to expect based on that, but I was a younger reader then, and my earlier impression that he was a little like Christopher Moore or Thomas Berger did not survive this reading. A cover blurb on my edition compares Robbins to Twain, and I’m close to agreeing with that, allowing for some flecks of Vonnegut and Charles Portis as well. I already have Even Cowgirls get the Blues, which is next up for me. I’d like to add a final quote and remind readers this book was published in 1971: “In an electronic technology, cultural changes occur more rapidly than value systems can accommodate them, and in the resulting confusion technology itself becomes a surrogate religion.” Amen, brother.