So this took me
a painfully long time to read,
Maybe
because I don’t smoke
Weed.
I’d like to continue this rhyming thought
But,
I’m not Tom Robbins.

And I don’t know how to strangle you with alliteration, assonance, simile, hyperbole, irony, and every other literary device in one hard punch of a sentence.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

For whatever reason, this one didn’t work for me stylistically and, well, racially. I struggled with feeling bogged down by the indulgent, overly verbose slow timing of the story. I kept feeling like there was so much more that could happen…but I never found it…over and over again. So many stupid, dud details.

It was also hard for me to imagine a middle-aged white author trying to embody and sexualize how a half-Asian chick feels in a predominantly white culture in Seattle. Teriyaki anyone? Seattle likes teriyaki; they just don’t like Asians. Robbins merely glances this issue (even though the protagonist is half Asian) with his own elitist rant:

“Nowadays, however, it seems few immigrants are inclined to assimilate. They bring their native cultures with them, virtually intact, cling to them, refusing even to learn to speak English and get angry when the social institutions of their adopted land fail to address them in their indigenous tongues. Which keeps them out of the work force, naturally, and in a state of victimization; a selfish, self-pitying, self-perpetuating state insidiously exploited by leftists for their own political ends. Thus, instead of a strong, nutritious broth, pungent with the aromatic spices of labor and success, America has become a plop of separate little lumps of undigested stuff. Kind of like—vomit. Good-bye, melting pot, hello, chamber pot.”

Ahem, why SHOULD immigrants cling to anything other than their own culture, their own comfort, when historically, white Americans have been less than welcoming to any immigrant that isn’t blond and blue eyed? Maybe Robbins needs to read Zinn?

Robbins’ descriptions and perceptions of Seattle have not changed since this was written more than 20 years ago. Which is indicative of a stagnant mindset within this local population. I read the first half of this book thinking…”these descriptions of Seattle could have been written today.” Sad, because I have come across so many people in WA who act like the things he describes in this book are recent phenomenons, recent social ills. “Seattle was always like THIS! Never like THAT!” “It’s because of the minorities that it’s now like THAT!” Robbins descriptions in this book prove otherwise.

Turns out, Seattle and WA have always been like THAT. The “Seattle freeze” is code for racism. And Seattle has always had a drug and homeless issue because it is a white po’ dunk state. It’s just unfortunate that Robbins needs to hide behind the guise of a minority female Asian (Filipino) character to get his points across.

I guess he wasn’t brave enough to take on a character from the Japanese American population who were run out of WA during the Japanese internment. Because, you know, you can’t go after Teriyaki in Seattle.

I couldn't even tell you what this book is about. It rambles endlessly about things which fail to make sense and more importantly completely fails to come to a conclusion.
The main character is a horrible person. She is impossible to sympathize with because she is just so awful. The book is written in second person which I simultaneously admire and despise. I admire that the author FORCED me to relate with the main character by writing in second person-clever-but it was also annoying to read a book which is telling me things like "you are annoyed by everything" (not a direct quote but pretty much sums up the entire beginning of the book) when I know that I am very much unlike this character.

I usually try to avoid spoilers when writing reviews but there are some specific things in the book I would like to address so there will be spoilers. Throughout the book, there is endless chit-chat about money, economy, aliens, frogs, physics, and Sirius B. No of which actually seems to mean anything. The main character, Gwen, starts out by being a money-obsessed and somewhat incompetent broker who everyone dislikes. She is in a committed relationship with Belford. They have been together around 3 years and he is dedicated to her and wishes to marry her. She can't decide how she feels about him so waits until he out of town to sleep with another man who is basically a stranger. This is Larry who is charming in a somewhat revolting way. He constantly talks bs and refers to her with disgusting pet-names such as "Pussy fondue" and "Pussy Girl" in fact ALL of his pet-names for her start with the word pussy. How endearing....
So the book is leading up to a possible alien encounter, a economic crash and even a possible love story. All those options, all those things to conclude and what the author gives me is this:
In the last pages of the book: Gwen instead of revealing to Belford that she has cheated attempts to use sex to get money from him, steals from her dad, tempts Belford's monkey back into a life of crime, abandons Belford far from home with no transportation or phone, steals from a doctor, tries to steal from her lover's roommate and the book ends. This is hardly a conclusion but that's where the book ends.

I sat through all this ramble about frogs and stars and the Bozo all for what? The only character development is that the main character goes from a money-crazed broker to a person who committed the list of events stated above. For a book which talks a lot about 'transformation' you'd think it's plot would revolve around character development. I suppose what happened was development but it was negative development. Tom Robbins took a mildly unlikable character and transformed her into a completely unlikable character. I suppose she became "enlightened" with her new found "knowledge" of aliens and orgasms....

Asides from the non-existent plot, I must also note the writing. It was written like it was trying really, really, really, really hard to be intelligent while saying nothing at all. While I do appreciate the varied vocabulary, the language is pompous and the metaphors are ill thought out. For a book which was suggested to me as a comedy, it wasn't the least bit funny. I guess i was supposed to find it funny because it had a monkey and 300 lb woman in it but I'm sorry that just doesn't register with me as humor.

After hearing such praise of this author this book was really a disappointment.

Reading Tom Robbins is like reading Hunter S. Thompson. Almost everyone seems to go through that phase at some point, and then eventually that phase ends.

I read every Tom Robbins book up to this one; I've yet to read his latest two (or three, or however many there are). Each of them is fantastic in its own way, although there are some consistencies in his style that are fantastic throughout his books -- his completely mind-blowing use of language in the service of crazy descriptions, analogies, and similes, and his Crazy Theory, that point of each book that would in a more traditional author be the denouement, but in the Robbins oeuvre is where he unveils whatever crackpot (and compelling, if you're predisposed to such thoughts, as I am) theory he's holding on to at the time.

Of the books I've read, Another Roadside Attraction stands out for its audacity; Jitterbug Perfume for the incredible story and writing (I still remember this line from the intro, something that is nearly unprecedented for yours truly, Mr. Swiss Cheese head: "[They] say a story that begins with a beet will end with the devil; that is a risk we will have to take."

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, however, is remarkable for two reasons: the "Tom Robbins' Crazy Theory" of the book is both the broadest and craziest of them all, and his use of the second person is a challenging, compelling and ultimately rewarding technique. Who writes in the second person anymore, and of those who do, how many of them choose such an unlikable character to make "you" identify with? Tom Robbins does, and he does it effortlessly well.

Tom Robbins is a motherfucking madman as it is; I guess he thought he would alienate even more normal people by writing in second-person. I found out on the first page that I was a female stockbroker living in Seattle, which was somewhat of a revelation.

There isn't much I have to say that isn't bullshit. Read it, muthafukker.

I'm a big fan of Tom Robbins novels, I’m surprised it took me this long to get around to reading this one. It has a very interesting “information seeking” theme. At first the main character just needs access to financial data, such as a Bloomberg terminal, or perhaps some other commercial electronic resources. In the time of the novel Bloomberg didn’t have mobile subscriptions.
I like the setting of Seattle, it’s wet and rainy for most of the book, opposite of my local climate.
I enjoyed the outer space themes and the Timbuktu history, now I’m curious to visit there.... I wonder if seeds really can travel from stars and other planets through outer space and land in our environment? I'd like to know what my peers think of the main character.... She's hard to like.

Ok so this one has some annoying/charming flaws that have exchanged their positions many times. First our heroine protagonist who we are invited to see ourselves as by the whole thing being in the second person, leaves us us a tad mystified by her weakness for mouthy hot winded bastards who dwell on the verges of social darwinism. And while much of that is meant humorously I sort of would have liked Gwen to walk away from some of the Dostoevsky-like pedantry. Leaving that aside, and we can really, lots happens in the twisted tale that is very cleverly amusing, our heroine is basically gang-banged in the street and it is outrageously the least important most easily forgotten bit in the tale! Lastly Gwen just never seems to have a deeper thought of her own than having to find a place to pee. Cuteness is not a character. OK if it’s anime we can get away with it but not in an otherwise really enjoyable novel full of hilarity and clever references. Robbins is not lazy. And while his style is ocd the result is s lot of fun.

This is the first Tim Robbins book I've read. I suspect that he is a divisive, love it or hate it kinda writer. And if this is a representative work, I'm not sure if I need to read any more of it, while I can respect what he's doing.

Plot-wise, not a lot goes on in this book. The main character, Madeline, is a investment broke who just lost everything in a market crash, at least partially through her own less-than-ethical activities. Her romantic life is cooling, as she contemplates breaking up with her bland, realtor boyfriend, a character so uninteresting that I've already forgotten his name. She meets a disgraced investment broker named Larry Diamond with whom she as an immediate attraction that she tries to deny. In the meantime her best friend, a psychic named Q-Jo disappears, as does her boyfriend's pet monkey, though I don't think that we are ever supposed to consider these events related.

So the dramatic tension boils down to this: will Madeline marry her bland boyfriend and attempt to save her financial carrier? Or will she run off with Larry Diamond to Timbuktu. Literally, Timbuktu. And will the psychic or the monkey ever turn up, if you care. I didn't really, about any of it.

There's the characters, none of who I really liked. Madeline is classist, materialistic, and image obsessed, and probably deserves to be in jail. Weirdly, she likes to throw out liberal talking points in conversation when it suits her argument. Q-Jo seems like the kind of force of nature that I'd find interesting in real life, but only in small doses.

Larry Diamond is utterly insufferable. He's constantly talking down to everyone else in the room about his philosophy about which he's intentionally mysterious in an effort to sound profound. He's basically just a Libertarian with some mysticism thrown in. I listened to the audio book, so for a moment I thought that maybe it was just the way he was being read. But the more I listened to the content of the dialogue, but more I realized that he's one of those people who acts like they're the only one in the room who gets the joke because he's just soooo smart. But then he isn't, really.

So that leaves style. And boy, does Tom Robbins layer it on thick. Purple doesn't even begin to describe the prose. He never uses three words when twelve will do. We get a lot of the main character's inner dialogue, and my first thought was "there's no way that this is how this character thinks." Incidentally, the book is written in second person, which by the end I was pretty sure was just a gimmick that didn't really add anything to the story. I'm not saying there aren't some interesting turns of phrase here, but there were definitely lines that didn't seem to have anything to do with anything. The author just had it pop into his head at some point and decided to throw it in a book.

So basically, individual mileage will vary greatly. If you're looking for plot and character, there just isn't much of that there. If you enjoy Tom Robbins's extremely thick prose style, well, there's plenty.

It’s hard to overstate how much i dislike both main characters. Gwen, our avaricious, insecure, manic, capitalist subject, subjected to demeaning second person talk down, a bozo and a fool; and Larry, our leery, narcissistic foil, a character I hate with all my being (it doesn’t help that he’s the author self-insert). and not in the “wet clam” ‘hate’ way either, a real-turned-off way. A mad, dying, cynic too often quoted.
t
t “You’re a man who has turned against money” - Gwen
t “The Bozo received their information about the stars telepathically.” - Larry

Q-Jo is the only character I liked, and the only one who called Gwen out. But she was missing for 2/3rds of the book, and I missed her every page.

The writing is quite good, and the story is engaging. It does the thing that good words do, novel or beautiful descriptions of the everyday or extraordinary. Similes and mini-fictions like mites reading Kafka in the bed, cheering sex on from their microscopic cities inside Gwen’s mattress.

The actual subject and content of the words is what looses me completely.

It is wry and funny in the way Vonnegut is, but emptily horny and wisdom-less in comparison. Manic women and charismatic men.

One more thing that was good, to not be too negative, is the Bent Trumpet motif throughout the book. A reference to Dizzy Gillespe’s (apocryphally accidental) bent trumpet horn. Used to illustrate individuality, marching to the beat of your own drum, and self destructive impulsiveness.

Oh, and the ending was quite funny, just another day in the life of the fool.

P.S. Having a book you don’t like very much but is easy to read is good high-retention speed-reading practice.

Within a Tom Robbins book, one can always expect some sort of outrageous theory and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas might be his best ‘Crazy Theory’ yet. The notion that us as humans are too simple for accepting that we are at our peak which had me setting the book down just to sit on this. How is it that we decided evolution has run its course and that we are the most successful product of a 4 billion year experiment, as he puts it. Webbed feet, half-land half-water destined or not, humans with a natural nature to commit murder, to rape, to sing ridiculous advertisement jingles seems like a rather disappointing result.

Gwendolyn has a great character development adventure, and whether or not you agreed with her action towards the end, she’s a prime example of a dynamic character who in the beginning represents a perverted version of the ‘American dream’. While I barely understood half the things Larry Diamond went on about, there’s no denying he had a grasp on the bigger picture and, once being what Gwendolyn was trying so hard to hold on to, he was the best thing that probably could’ve happened to her. But that depends I guess on what the reader values in life, and what they wanted for Gwendolyn. Either way, I thought her twist of the opportunity at end was worthy of a fools tarot card.

Wild. Wacky. Warped. A rambunctious blend of Moore, Pratchett, and Coupland. Utterly fantastic and fantastical.

First time to write a review. Discovered Tom about a year ago and have absolutely loved every single book so far. Until this one. It just did not have the same energy. I struggled to finish it honestly. Could not find any connection to the characters or storyline. I really hope my next Robbins read is another five star because I absolutely love him. But this one just was not for me.

I'm really not a fan of books where it is clear that the author is trying really hard to be clever. Unlike many of those authors, I think Tom Robbins actually succeeds in being clever, but it doesn't motivate me too much. My main problem with this book is the use of the second person. I think it would work if it were a murder mystery or some book where you were swept away by plot and the main character didn't have dominant personality traits. But the main character in this book, you/Gwen, has every detail of her life/character/history spelled out, and to keep referencing her as "you," on top of the extreme cleverness of every sentence prevented me from being able to get into this book. Not terrible, and I'd understand if someone really liked it, but it didn't do it for me.