Another Roadside Attraction

Rating:
Summary: Not for the weak of mind
Review: Another Roadside Attraction is set in the 60s, complete with free love, drugs, and substantial weirdness. While most readers seize on the Second Coming as the main premise of the book, for me, it's the interplay between the characters that makes it a worthwhile read, again and again. The book espouses a philosphy to live by that we could all profit from. For those of you wearing Dockers every day, don't bother with this one - you won't get it. You're simply not capable of getting it.

Rating:
Summary: Incoherent ramblings
Review: The premise is good. What if Jesus had never risen from death? However, the author then fumbles it with a writing style and characters that may have been at home during the free love and drug lifestyle of the 60's, fail to make an adequate reading in today. Robbins writings jump from section to section, character to charcter, event to event, time frame to time frame with every paragraph, leaving the reader confused and disorientated. We are left asking "Has this happened yet? Who are these people? What does THIS have to do with anything?" Sadly, these questions often go unanswered. It is as if the author himself was on the very same drugs he alludes the characters in his book were taking...

Rating:
Summary: It's just bad.
Review: This book just rambles on and on and on and on and on and on about nothing in particular. It's not coherent enough to be boring. As I was reading the book, I actually wondered if Robbins was playing some sort of elaborate joke on his readers.

I suppose I'm just not bohemian enough or something.

Rating:
Summary: Jesus Christ is So Cool
Review: What a crazy read this is. It's weird, it's different, and it's fun. I've not read any of Robbins other works, but I certainly will. This book offers a pagan's view on the Catholic church and America's religious ways. If you are Catholic, you might have some trouble with the Vatican's Hitmen. But if you like Butterflies, beautiful, though erratic, writing, and some disturbing thoughts, this book should be a delight. It's slow moving, (Jesus doesn't even show up till a quarter of the end or so)but the doings of the Roadside Zoo should keep you entrhalled.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing
Review: This book is about the everyday life and mishaps of a family of gypsies. The setting is in the early 90's and the place is no where in particular. The main characters of this book are Amanda, her husband, John Paul Ziller, and a Monkey named Moncule. The Zillers are traveling around searching for the perfect place to put up a zoo of sorts. When they pass an old run down Mom and Pop's, they had to buy it. The zoo is made up of 15 San Francisco garter snakes, a flea circus, a bowlegged chicken, a dead fly, and butterflies. This book is very confusing, and I do not recommend anybody reading it. The book jumps around from page to page, and goes on for 40 or 50 pages about nothing relevant. The writer uses words that a normal person would not use and then goes on for a page explanining the word. This book has got to be the worst written and flowing book I have ever read. I did not like this book and I am surprised that I finished reading it.

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Summary: For Catholic Schooled Readers
Review: Great What-if? story, with characters as interesting as the activities they undertake. No cowardice here!

Rating:
Summary: Keeps A Smile On Your Face
Review: I'm ready to declare Another Roadside Attraction the final book of the bible. While I'm willing to admit that this is not exactly fine literature, it's the most fun I've had in a while reading and also really made me think about things a bit. The first 50-60 pages are confusing, but the characters keep you going; I love Amanda's quotes ("There's no word for what I'm going to be when I grow up,"). Robbins' brilliant similes will keep a smile on your face the whole way. I've read almost all of Robbins' books, and this is by far the best I've read. If you want a fun little book that you'll be sure to keep on your shelf for a while, try out Another Roadside Attraction.

Rating:
Summary: Twenty Years Too Late
Review: This is a book that I should have read twenty years ago, when my brain had not yet been infected with real literature. The book is fun, the writing amusing, the ideas interesting, but as a whole, the book fails to deliver the grand epiphany it builds to (ok, this is where all you rabid Robbins fans press the not helpful button). I imaging Mr. Robbins, sitting at his typewriter when he wrote this, grinning to himself and saying, "wow, this is great!" Well . . . Not great, but four stars good, a bit pretentious and what may have seemed original twenty years ago now just seems dated. But so what. Bell bottoms are coming back too, and there's a lot of fun here in characters if not in plot.

Rating:
Summary: Digging up Old Gems
Review: Fans of Tom Robbins' more recent work will enjoy going back and taking a look at his first novel, Another Roadside Attraction.

From page one, the reader will note that the author's writing style is fully formed, fat, juicy, and full of snap. There are several little stories going on, but the one I like best goes something like this.

A former college football player, banished from organized football after a carnal episode with his coach's wife, is hiking through the wet wilderness of Olympic National Park. He comes upon a murdered Catholic monk with a letter of introduction. Stealing the monk's clothes and assuming his identity, he continues on the path until he arrives at what was to be the monk's destination: a completely unknown monastary that serves as a training ground for the Vatican hit squad. Passing himself off as the murdered monk, he soon finds himself transferred to duty at the Vatican where, after some time, he is able to use the confusion created by a rather severe earthquake to sneak his way into the lowest, off-limits section of the Vatican catacombs. Who's body he finds, and what happens after that? Read the book.

Five big stars for this one!

Rating:
Summary: How much do you really know?
Review: I enjoyed this book because it made you question the ethics of religious authorities without questioning belief itself. This book is hilarious and thought-provoking. I found myself wondering what all goes on that no one even knows or thinks about.