A couple of "flower children" types open a hot dog stand in the Pacific Northwest and correspond with a friend who has inadvertently joined an order of assassin monks. They are joined by Marx Marvelous, a self-proclaimed scientist who believes that Christianity is drawing to a close. And about that mysterious Corpse that shows up at one point....

Written in 1971, aspects of this novel seem awfully dated (drug & counter-culture references abound - plenty of sex, too!), but the underlying philosophy is still valid - faith vs science -- and do they have to be versus one another? Many clever turns of phrase as well.

Recommended to those who are interested in discussions of faith & science & can handle a couple of steamy love scenes.

I love love love my boy Tom❤️ he never disappoints. This one lagged a touch in the middle - deffs his MOST philosophically dense book I’ve read yet, but I appreciate what he is trying to explore and unpack. On my way to the beyond, I hope I’ll be lucky enough to make a pit stop at such a road side attraction; where the big weenie guides the souls of the hungry and the curious… and the hotdogs are always fresh.

I'm pretty sure I was supposed to like this book more than I actually did. There were some exceptional segments and witty commentary, but I found it difficult to stay engaged.

I think I would rate sections 1-3 a two-star read and sections 4-5 a four star read.

This is interesting, because so often books are great until the end and the conclusion just feels like the author had to find a way to stop (I love you Stephen King, but we all know you hate writing endings and it is evident.)

In this case, however, the end is the best and most readable part.

I used to be a huge Tom Robbins fan when I was younger. As I've grown older, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he really is just kind of a dirty old man. I've had a copy of this for it seems like all of my adult life, it's been boxed up and moved I don't know how many times, but it's probably been over ten years since I've read it last. It was always one of my favorites, and after my disappointment from recent re-visitations of other Robbins classics, I was a little leery of it. This one is just fun, and the whole concept that the book is built on-- Jesus Christ's physical body resides in the bowels of the Vatican, hidden for centuries by the Church-- appeals to my less-than-enthusiastic opinion of the Catholic Church. So, I guess in summary: it was fun, had lots of overindulgent "philosophical" discussions, was critical of the upper echelons of the Catholic Church, and Robbins portrays sympathetic, truly likable characters.

Το βιβλίο αυτό γράφτηκε κατά κάποιο μαγικό και απερίγραπτο τρόπο για φιλελεύθερους στοχαστές,
που απολαμβάνουν λογοτεχνικές παραπομπές, κοινωνικές και πολιτιστικές παραλλαγές, πολιτική ιστορία, μεταξύ αναφορών σε πλήθος πληροφοριών που ποτέ δεν πιστεύατε πως θα είχατε πάρει, με βασικό σημείο αναφοράς τη θρησκεία.
Ο Ρόμπινς γίνεται θανατηφόρος και αξέχαστος με το καθολικό και βαθιά συναισθηματικό ταλέντο
με το οποίο μεταφέρει τις σκέψεις του συνδυαστικά με μια αναμφισβήτητη πρωτοτυπία μπορεί σίγουρα να αλλάξει κοσμοθεωρίες και να αναστήσει συνειδήσεις.

Πνευματική και σαρκική
κραυγή που εξολοθρεύει τα απίστευτα και συνδυάζει μια αξιοπρεπή ιστορία και μια καταπληκτική γνώση του κόσμου.

Διαβάζοντας όλο και περισσότερα απο τα έργα του συνειδητοποιώ διαισθητικά και εμπειρικά πως είναι ένας σαμουράι της πεζογραφίας.
Αυτός ο λογοτεχνικός σαμουράι συνδυάζει δυο βασικά κριτήρια προαπαιτούμενα για να δημιουργηθεί ένα φοβερό μυθιστόρημα: εξειδικευμένη πνευματική πεζογραφία και εξελικτική αφήγηση, με επικά όπλα προώθησης των συγγραφικών του δυνάμεων.
Τα εξωγήινα υπερόπλα της πένας του είναι οι παρομοιώσεις και οι μεταφορές που γίνονται τατουάζ στο δέρμα του νου και απαγορεύουν τις άτεχνες παλινδρομήσεις.
Οι ιστορίες του γεννιούνται απο ένα πονηρό φρικαρισμένο μυαλό και συνοψίζονται τέλεια σε μια δική τους καταπληκτική εγγενή λογική.

Ο Ρόμπινς είναι ένας μανιακός που μόνο να τον λατρέψεις επιτρέπεται.
Οτιδήποτε άλλο αποτελεί απλώς παρανόηση ή παρεξήγηση της θαυμαστής ιδιοφυΐας του.

Στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο,η ιστορία μας περιλαμβάνει μια τσιγγάνα πριγκίπισσα, έναν ελεύθερο πνευματικά μάγο απο την Αφρική ή πιθανότατα απο την Ινδία, έναν επιστήμονα αιρετικής συνομοσιολογίας, έναν καλόγερο του έρωτα που προωθεί όνειρα και ναρκωτικά και το μουμιοποιημένο σώμα του Ιησού Χριστού,
άρτι αφιχθέν απο τις κατακόμβες του Βατικανού.
Όλοι μια παρέα, μαζί τους επίσης, ένας μπαμπουίνος που παίζει με τον Θορ, το παιδί της τσιγγάνας,του οποίου γεννήτορες είναι η αστραπή και ο κεραυνός.

Δεν μπορώ να πω κάτι περισσότερο.
Πρόκειται για έναν φιλοσοφικό οργασμό, με πολλά λογοτεχνικά χάδια, ζεστασιά, χιούμορ, ερωτική μυθολογία, ρητορική χαλιναγώγησης ορμέμφυτων ερεθισμών, αρχαίοτυπικά ερεθίσματα, μυσταγωγία, και ανθρωπολογική απόλαυση.

Ο Ρόμπινς εκτελεί θαύματα με λόγια!!


Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.

This is one of Robbins' greatest novels. It has all the delirious, joyful, drug-addled prose one expects from Robbins, but avoids his frequent mistake of devolving into boring speculations about the inner lives of inanimate objects or conspiracy theories involving the pyramids. The heroine, Amanda, is one of the sexiest characters in literature, despite (or maybe because of) her marriage to fellow carny weirdo John Paul. Read this book when you feel like having sex on a roller coaster.

"Marriage is not a synonym for monogamy any more than monogamy is a synonym for ideal love [...:]. A strange spurt of semen is not going to wash our love away."

Quirky and endearing. Definitely a bit terse in the set up and progress of the story. However, I do remember laughing several times.

This was my first of many Tom Robbins books. I read it for the first time when I was probably 16 and it completely opened me up to entirely new ways of thinking and over the years I would definitely say Robbins has had a significant influence on my general perspective. The way that he entertains and (perhaps subliminally) teaches while making you uncomfortable at times while extracting intense emotions at others is truly unique and remarkable. Over the course of reading this novel one experiences a staggering range of emotions from laughing your ass off, to feeling almost embarrassed or violated, to making you break down in tears because he so eloquently put words to a thought or feeling you previously had but weren't conscious of, at the end of it all you feel exhausted and as if you have grown, or perhaps evolved.

This book makes me want to climb trees and wear scarves around my head and count stars and leave home to make meaningfully self-indulgent music in the desert with people I don't know but trust unconditionally. It also sort of makes me want a pet baboon quite badly.

"Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is - and still not caring." Robbins makes such broad claims, yet they always ring true. I wonder, does he lie awake at night wracking his brain for the right words? Do they follow him home from the supermarket? Does he get drunk and wake up with them written on the back of his hands? Why does he see what no one else does?

This book makes absolutely no sense unless you pay very close attention. I'd say it's worth reading either way. The answer to butterflies, the keys to love, secret societies and hot dog stands and impromptu zoos and love children and the freedom to simply exist as a human being, comfortable in your own skin just seeps from between the pages of this book.

My coverless, Scotch-Taped together,coffee-stained and torn paperback addition sits on my bedside table and gives me permission to go barefoot, to sit crosslegged on my front lawn and have political debates with my Shiatsu, to climb my cherry tree and drop love notes on strangers walking by. "The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime." He says. Butterflies have permission to rule the world.

I think everyone should read this book just so they can be sure it exists. This book exists for a reason. This book makes the world what it is, in it's own little coffee stained way.

Almost read all the Tom Robbins now. Im just now realizing how much he reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut. But weirder and more .... "hippie".

I'd forgotten Robbins' predilection for trifles, tangents, and false starts, fleeting impressions on the page that fade faster than duck farts on pond water. Rapidly finished the book and set it down with the solemn oath of never again, never again.

First, a few home truths. Nobody writes like Tom Robbins. There’s never been a character like Amanda in the whole of literature, and that could be a good or a bad thing. And I really hope today’s column ends up as a recommendation for ‘Another Roadside Attraction’ as I mean it to be, and not a Cease-and-Desist.

You see, Tom Robbins is a ‘phase’ writer. As regular readers, many of us have gone through phases where we would binge-read one writer; I have had a Hilary Mantel phase, a Louise Penny phase, a Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay phase, but the one I would love to go back to was my Tom Robbins phase. It’s a spell though; once it’s broken, it’s difficult to go back.

Story? Plot? Narrative arc? Oh you poor dear. Robbins will sprawl and meander and give you a wall graffiti, a Jackson Pollock painting, and you ask for an arc? He will exasperate you. He will be cracking the most inane of glorious-word-play trivialities in the middle of what you think is the heart of the story’s main conflict. He will go on a five-page detour (and often an exquisite one) about a minor character, never to visit that character again.
But he is a magician, is our Tom. He writes the most hilarious, finely-crafted cod-philosophy, and creates the most uproariously unbelievably lovely protagonists and the most uniquely quotable one-liners and party-pieces (sample this, my favourite line in all of literature: ‘It’s never too late to have a happy childhood’**) – and whenever that silly question ‘which literary character would you like to have a coffee with’ is popped, my answer is always Amanda from ‘Another Roadside Attraction’.

What to say about Amanda? She is unique – a free spirit if there ever was one. A connoisseur of mushrooms, butterflies and quack medicine, the book blurb defines her perfectly - ‘lovable prophetess and promiscuous earth-mother’. She meets John Paul Ziller - a legendary magician / musician / filmmaker, and the master / disciple of Mon Cul, the baboon who knows of the only word in the dictionary that rhymes with ‘orange’. Amanda meets Ziller, they have a marriage-at-first-sight, and they set up "Captain Kendrick's Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve" in Skagit County, Washington - a roadside hot dog stall / zoo that of course does not keep lions and tigers and elephants, because come on, everyone knows it’s cruel to cage animals - but indeed has a flea circus. Yes, fleas. Yes, circus.

Then their friend Plucky Purcell, a former college football star, turns up. He had infiltrated the Felicitators, a sect of Catholic monks who act as the Vatican’s assassins. He had been to the Vatican. There had been an earthquake at the Vatican while he was there. And what he had found there, and what he had stolen and brought along with him now, will change the face of organized religion forever. Or it might not. But heck, the ride would be worth it.

Go on, then. Hop on to the ride with Amanda. And tell her that I said hi, and tell her that I still love her.



n  First reviewed at The New Indian Expressn.

** That line's from Woodpecker. I know.