Ruth Priester

Tom Robbins is an iconoclastic, rambunctious, raunchy, anti-establishment, woozy aesthetic writer. But that's only according to professional book reviewers, and in Robbins own words, "they've no damned business with their snouts in a document like this anyway".(Another Roadside Attraction,p225) Robbins, a former student of art and religion, spent five years as a copy editor and art critic for an urban newspaper before moving to Washington state to write fiction. He's spent some time in Africa and Asia during the off-periods from his writing, he usually takes off about four years in between novels. Robbins uses an overwhelmingly large amount of descriptive imagery and according to the Magill Book Review of his newest novel Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas he leaves his readers with a"psychedelic linguistic rush". Robbins takes New Age beliefs and applies them to ancient and modern religions- often focusing on Christianity and Jesus. If a reader goes into a book without strong beliefs, he will surely leave with some. Robbins stories twist and turn and get all jumbled up, but some how there is a story line. His books have a tradition of characters from normal roles in life who stumble onto another astral plane. By using this format, Robbins is able to show illusions that humanity has developed, caused by ignorance and disinformation. This is seen in Skinny Legs and All, Jitterbug Perfume, and Another Roadside Attraction.

His novel Skinny Legs and All is a fine example of his awkward story lines. Ellen Cherry Charles lives with her parents, who are followers of a Christian sect led by her Uncle, Reverend Buddy Winkler (who Ellen's mother happens to be having an affair with). Her boyfriend is a welder and she is an artist. Ellen had no intention of marrying her boyfriend, Boomer Petway. But he, in her words, "tricked her" (Skinny Legs and All,p31) when he built and Airstream motor home into a Turkey. They moved to New York so Ellen could be closer to the art world. But instead of Ellen Cherry being discovered it was Boomer who was adopted by the avant-garde. This caused too much friction than the newlyweds could handle and they split-up. In he mean-time, her Uncle Buddy was devising a plan to create World War Three, so as to quicken the Second Coming. Ellen Cherry got a job as a waitress at an ethnic restaurant named Isaac and Ishmael's, which becomes the object of people's fascism and often receives bomb threats. Ellen's Uncle also hates the I and I. This causes controversy between her and her Uncle. at the same time, Boomer has been a real success and he begins to work on a statue in Jerusalem. The Uncle takes advantage of his kinship to Boomer and uses him as a go-thru in his plan to blow up the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem, which would, according to his plan, cause WWIII. Also, Painted Stick and Conch Shell, priest and priestess of Astarte (the Earth goddess) journey to New York accompanied by Spoon, Dirty Sock, and Can o'Beans. Conch Shell and Painted Stick are also interested in the creation of a New Jerusalem in belief that they will once again be regarded with respect as they once were. They think Ellen is the key to getting to Jerusalem because they heard her request for Boomer to call her Jezebel while in the act of copulation. At the same time, the I and I has contracted a belly-dancer, Salome, who after seeing on of Ellen Cherry's paintings agreed to do the Dance of the Seven Veils, the whole story takes place in the time span of this dance- but the reader does not know this until the end of the story. Each veil, or each chapter, removes a veil of distillation from the reader's eyes-veils of such things as materialism, social control, popular culture, and organized religion.

When the fifth veil falls, and with it the illusion of financial worth, individuals might recognize themselves again, might find themselves standing, as if naked, among ancient values in a long-lost landscape.

Meanwhile, it can be stated with some validity that for all of the clamorings and phobias that it generates, money barely exists. An abstraction, a symbol, an act of faith, an IOU backed only by a banker's word, money is first and foremost a substitute. The funny part is that it's a substitute for things that often do not exist.(Skinny Legs and All,p262)

This story shows how a character from a normal role in life, Ellen Cherry, a wanna-be artist, ends up being a key in the drama of the Second Coming. It also uses Christianity to show the faults of modern organized religion. And it shows how the modern world is obsessed with money and other material objects.

Jitterbug Perfume takes on the idea of death. It speaks of immorality being an attainable state. The story starts in ancient Bohemia. In Bohemia the tradition was that as soon as the king was showing any sign of aging he was to be killed by a poisoned boiled egg. Well, the present king, Alobar. did not want to die, so he confided in his favorite wife, Wren, to pull out his gray hairs. But he was discovered anyway, and he had to die. But since it was Wren's responsibility to deliver the poisoned egg, she put fake poison in and later after the burial he went and un-buried him. He fled, in his flight he saw a woman, who was running from a funeral pyre, a tradition that when the husband died the wife would be burned alive being forced by her family into the fire. Also witnessing this was a young girl, Kudra, who was weeping. He made her promise never to let that happen to her. From there he traveled on to Samye Valley to live in a Tibetan Buddhist Lamasery where he was to learn. Years later, Kudra, remembering her promise to Alobar, fled her funeral pyre to find him. She found him at Samye and they fled together to the Bandaloop, who taught immortality. But when thy get to the caves the Bandaloop are said to inhibit, all they found was an empty cave. Fortunately, they were inspired by the caves and they taught themselves how to practice immortality. The characters support their views on immortality by stating:

The universe does not have laws. It has habits. And habits can be broken.(Jitterbug Perfume,p251)

Later, as Alobar nd Kudra were crossing a prairie they ran into Pan who taught them about gods. Pan smelled really bad and Kudra, having an interest in fragrance tried to find a way to cover up his scent, but could not find the proper base note. Centuries later, after a freak dematerializing accident Kudra was separated from Alobar, they were not to see each other for many centuries, until Alobar had found the right base note and he was marketing the perfume. When he finds Kudra, just outside of place the perfume was centuries before, she says she visited the other side, where people go when they die and that there she is told:

Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, thy would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.(Jitterbug Perfume,p338)

This story also shows rather ordinary people, here a king and a widow, crossing over to the "abnormal" and abstract by living an immortal life-style. It also uses ancient religions to depict Christianity as a weak religion, and the pursuit of happiness in Christianity as futile.

Another Roadside Attraction shows how Robbins is correct when he calls his books "aphrodisiacs, mood-elevators, intellectual garage door openers, and metaphysical trash-compactors".(Skinny Legs and All, p481) In this story, a couple, Amanda and Ziller open a roadside zoo, which has endangered garter snakes and a flea circus. The Zillers live in a state of ecstasy- which is defined by Amanda on page 167 of Another Roadside Attraction.

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.

The couple is acquainted with a man named Plucky Purcell who writes them about his adventures. The reader finds out through "hearing" the letters read that Plucky has infiltrated an order of militant monks. They mistake him for a karate expert they were expecting and before long he is transferred to the Vatican to teach the Swiss Guard karate. There is a horrible earth-quake and Plucky rushes to the concubines then finds and air-mails the body of Jesus Christ to the roadside zoo. The Catholic Church wants the body back, so the order the CIA to surround the zoo. Plucky and Ziller escape minutes before and high-jacks an experimental balloon to the sun and ride with the corpse to the ultimate source of life, the sun. This book, along with the other books Robbins has written, shows how individuals in mediocre roles can create, and live in, roles that are rare and respectful. Amanda, a free, but very earthy, spirit finds herself caring for the body of Jesus Christ. This book also uses an individuals desire to be free and urges that must be suppressed in "good" Christians to show the almost ridiculous demands of modern organized religions.

Robbins is a breathe of fresh air in the literary world. He crosses lines, break rules, and rewrites principles, he is unequalled in his philosophy. He favors living for the pleasure, accepting responsibility for oneself, developing personal beliefs about God, acceptance, and experiencing instead of suppressing. His suggestions leave the reader a lot the think about.

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(Created 12/15/96/Modified: )

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