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Summary: the following psa is sponored by.......
Review: I laughed as I read the reviews above. So many fans have "expectations" of what this should be "compared" to previous novels...what's the deal here?
<insert big smile and wink>
Do you expect that your expectations are to be met?
Do you think it "should" read like something already written? Oh what would be the "novel"ty in that?I suggest reading it and forgetting who and what you think the "author" should be peforming.....read it with an open mind and if,sigh, you have to judge it, do so based on the current book. Expectations are funny things, they so often get in the way of what's really happening.......but that's just my opinion ;-)
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Summary: mystique and intrigue up to the end
Review: This was not my favorite Robbins title. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great read and I had a lot of trouble putting the book down at times. The ending seemed rushed and undeveloped, it left me flat. However, I loved the orchestration of Asian folklore, rawTanuki behaviors, modern day Southeast Asia and the Circus. These themes alone seemed so much material to explore and develop, that about half way through the book I started thinking the book was already too short. I guess I was spoiled by some of Robbins' other titles. All in all, I'm still glad that I read this book, it is worth the read.
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Summary: Not the best of Robbins
Review: I wait patiently for each Tom Robbins book - and this one was a bit disappointing. The writing was electric - as usual - and a joy to read. I find myself stopping and reading sections aloud. But overall I found many parts tedious and a bit confusing. It wasn't a book I was upset to finish - I was glad it was over and I could move on to something else. Better luck next time!
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Summary: A Dizzying Sandwich of Philosophizing and Digression
Review: "It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute." Are there any other authors with the chutzpah to begin a novel in this manner? Are we in the hands of one of the most inventive and annoying talents writing today? Is it possible to fulfill the audacious promise of such a first sentence? The answers to these questions, I believe, are no, yes, and "Define fulfill." Let me begin by copping to the charge of being an inveterate Robbins fan. First I named a car, and then a daughter Amanda, after the heroine of Robbins's 1971 novel, ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION. And I've jumped on all of his other wild roller coaster rides, always amused and impressed, but pausing occasionally to wonder whether there's a point. Or rather, which of the many points about spirit, sex and government is meant to be the theme. VILLA INCOGNITO is no exception. It concerns the ancestry of an Asian circus performer named Lisa Ko (hint: the well endowed Tanuki is involved) and the fates of three American MIA's whose secret palace across a misty gorge in the Laos village of Fan Nan Nan gives the novel its name. The Smarty Pants gang, as Mars Albert Stubblefield, Dickie Goldwire and Dern Foley were known in Vietnam, was shot down over Laos in 1973. When they escaped the POW camp, they made their way to the highlands. They liked it so much that they never got around to leaving. The main narrative concerns Foley's capture by the police, and Stubblefield and Goldwire's reaction to it. It seems the three MIA's had been selling raw opium to furnish their palace and feed their concubines, and now Foley has had the bad grace to be arrested with drugs at the airport. Foley's capture in Guam brings Lisa Ko back to Asia from the U.S. to visit her sweetie, Goldwire. It also conjoins Colonel Patt Thomas and a very proper CIA agent, Mayflower Cabot, to try to find the other two MIA's. Upon learning that Mayflower Cabot had three gallstones show up on an ultrasound, Colonel Thomas, who "was suspicious of the gastronomical fortitude of certain white men when confronted with the kind of eats that really counted," tells Cabot, "Three stones is all? Hell, long as one of 'em ain't Keith Richards, you'll be fine." Made you laugh? Buy the book. If not, the disjointed shenanigans of Mars Stubblefield and his gang may inspire a record speed in trajectory of book to wall. Certainly you'll be no match for the high wire that is the only access to the Villa Incognito across the mysterious Fan Nan gorge and the discourse that awaits you there. This novel is a dizzying sandwich of characterization, philosophizing and digression. If you can't stomach a five-hundred-word paean to the wonders of mayonnaise, you won't even notice the bologna nestled underneath. If you're up for it, then praise the Animal Ancestors and pass the biscuits. I for one am still smacking my lips. --- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman-Nicol
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Summary: A Patchwork Mess
Review: I have been a Tom Robbins fan from way back in the days of Even Cow Girls Get the Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker all the way to Fierce Invalids. He has had a few "missteps" along the way but none quite as horrible as Villa Incognito. This was, perhaps, his most forced prose of any book, marked by a patchwork of characters that never developed, blended together to create that magaical environment only he can achieve at his best. Usually, I cannot put down a Robbins Novel, but it actually took me a week to read this one. I guess it is a must read for Robbins fans and they will probably say, "maybe next time." This should not be the introduction for the first time Robbines reader, stick to the titles I mentioned above for a feel of what TR can really do. So, I guess, maybe next time.
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Summary: A bit disappointing
Review: I've read every book by Tom Robbins but have to say that I wasn't crazy about this one. I thought the characters were intriguing but unfortunately the plot felt like it was rushed along and the ending seemed to have been thrown together at the last moment.
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Summary: still better than 99% of the stories out there
Review: alright! if you haven't read Tom Robbins before, don't make this your first one. it is really a wonderful book but his others are more thorough and enlightening. Suggestion: read many other Tom Robbins books until this one turns-up at a resale bookstore or until it is released as a paperback. that's it kiddos...
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Summary: Whole less than sum, but that's OK
Review: Villa Incognito, the eighth novel by American author Tom Robbins, begins, "It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute." Welcome to Tom Robbins' country, a place where maniacal humour, pointed social commentary, and fantastic plot twists take the place of literary realism. That's just as well, as he wouldn't have it any other way. Robbins has made a name for himself with a series of alternately daft and deft novels, marked by a singularity of vision and prose few can match. Along with quirky contemporaries such as Christopher Moore and Neal Stephenson, and owing a great deal to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Robbins's works are devastatingly funny and quick-witted, while also serving as sometimes overly blunt satire of the world we live in. If all this comes at the expense of plot is a price his fans are willing to pay. Villa Incognito's storyline, such as it is, concerns three American MIAs who have chosen to remain missing rather than return to America. Along the way, Robbins manages to incorporate such disparate elements as terrorism, clown fetishists, drug smugglers, the Vietnam War, high-wire artists, and an outlandish, badger-like manifestation from Japanese folklore. Robbins is a writer who delights in unusual, idiosyncratic descriptive prose. The atmosphere in Laos "seemed to sprout fat red fingers, baker's fingers that kneaded pedestrians as if they were lumps of dough." A singer "crooned the way a can of cheap dog food might croon if a can of cheap dog food had a voice." A kiss between lovers mutates into "a swift grazing of lip meat." The plots of Robbins's compositions, as in the best of Vonnegut, exist only to function as curtain rod over which he drapes his wonderful digressions. No topic is too minor nor too sacred a cow to skewer: He attacks 9/11 and America's 'solution' to the drug problem with as much fervour as he espouses the magical qualities of mayonnaise. The constant asides onto whatever subject he deems important are what make his tales both so enjoyable to read, and difficult to encapsulate. (For ample proof of this, look no further than the atrocious Hollywood adaptation of his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.) As such, the plot of Villa Incognito is slight. Too slight. There lacks a concrete base to fully support the weight of his themes. His characters, excepting the likeable Dickie Goldwire and the Colonel Kurtz-like figure of Mars Albert Stubblefield, fail to make any impact beyond the printed page. Like the high-wire performers he describes, Robbins's story is precariously balanced on too fine a foundation. It falters, and finally tumbles. Yet that should not dissuade the uninitiated from revelling in the many pleasures to be found. Writer's Digest proclaimed Robbins "one of the best writers of the 20th Century." Perhaps in his finest works, he is. Here, however, he's merely on a quick stroll though the offbeat avenues of his mind. That the result may lack importance doesn't detract from its entertainment value
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Summary: Well, this isn't any different ...
Review: I've reviewed several Tom Robbins novels on Amazon; I've read all of Tom Robbins novels. Not my favorite author by any means, but I've always loved the way he plays with language. Looking at the reviews of Villa Incognito already posted, I noticed that many reviewers have imitated Robbins style of writing in their review. I checked back on my earlier reviews and have to admit that I too am guilty of doing that. Many professional book reviewers have also found themselves stumbling down that path. Villa Incognito is fine. It's a typical Tom Robbins novel. If it is your introduction to the author, you'll either fall in love with his writing style or dismiss it as sophomoric. His writing is both captivating and immature. I'm still waiting for the author to display something more in his work. You could read his first work, Another Roadside Attraction, and except for the timeframe of the plot, it would be hard to determine which book was written first--the first novel or the last. That said, I'm fascinated by Robbins unusual writing style, where he supposedly labors over each word until he is satisfied, and then this slowly created first draft is in fact the final, published form of the novel--I think, when you read Robbins, you can imagine the process happening just so. It would be nice to have seen Tom mature as a writer over the years. I realize I'm asking for a lot--the same playful use of language accompanied by a more worldly view and more complex characters--but the works of most authors mature over time, So why not Tom's?
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Summary: Tom Robbins is back and better than ever!
Review: Okay fine, he'll probably never repeat the genius of Jitterbug Perfume. So what. This book rocks! Full of the Robbins wit, wisdome and wackiness we've grown to love. Considerably better than Fierce Invalids, thank goodness, this novel never fails to bring a smile to your face. Beastility, bordellos, borderline psychotics and big tanuki balls abound. A must read whether a fan or not quite yet a fan of Robbins' works. Way to go Tom!
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