Villa Incognito

Rating:
Summary: redeemed by the ending
Review: I thought I was cruising for a disappointing Tom Robbins book until I got to the last quarter of it. Read for symbolism in this one. The tightrope and the circus... I won't say anymore so as not to ruin it. And to some of these amazon critics: give the guy a break, for chrissakes. He writes each book the way he feels like it. If you've learned anything from reading Tom Robbins, it ought to have been non-attachment to your own expections.

Rating:
Summary: Tanuki. Himself.
Review: Like HALF ASLEEP, this novel is ery underrated. I'd have expected this one to be popular among fans, actually. This is Robbins at his most artistic, I think. There's something very beautiful about VILLA INCOGNITO, although it's fairly difficult to explain. The scope is so broad.

VILLA INCOGNITO doesn't have a protagonist, but each of the significant characters are very compelling; it's difficult to call one of the novel's threads the main storyline. But it's a great read.

Rating:
Summary: What happened???
Review: For the first time in my life, I has experienced disappointment in a Tom Robbins book. The master who picked up were Richard Brautigan left off, has written something which does not deserve to be called a Tom Robbins book. Villa Incognito is Robbins incognito because Robbins style and wit have never been so totally missing in a work by this author. I don't recognize Villa Incognito as something Robbins would have written. If he writes another book anything like Villa Incognito, I will need to find another favorite author.

Rating:
Summary: flippin fantastic
Review: I had to read it alone because I was laughing out loud so hard that it was distracting to my housemates. Brilliant. Not my first Robbin's but by far my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: not among the best
Review: Hard to top Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. This book was tough to get through but did start to pick up 2/3 of the way through. I read it with a dictionary in hand and learned a few new vocabs. The mix between fantasy (Tanukis and Kitsune) and real life
allegories didn't seem to jive so well. None of the characters were really well developed. Personally would not recommend it, sorry Tom you are a genious and would beat anyone at srabble but felt this one was a bit of a sramble...

Rating:
Summary: people of zee world, relax!!!
Review: here are five things to know about this book, some already mentioned by previous reviewers:
1. it is what it is.
2. those new to Robbins should not start with this book, but it is great nevertheless. start with Still Life and work your way up from there.
3. you are what you it, and tanukis are real.
4. not his best, sure, but not his worst, by far - I mean really - anyone would need a retreat to the mountains of Laos after producing genius like Fierce Invalids.
5. there are no mistakes.
enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Lite and entertaining
Review: I have read a few of Tom Robbins books over the years, begining with Another Roadside Attraction, but I became disenchanted with some of his novels involving animate inanimate objects as characters. Villa Incognito is very clever and more reminiscent of his earlier work. I would prefer to give this book 4 1/2 but I bumped it upwards, not so much for its literary or artistic achievments, but because of the sheer fun and enjoyment of reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Like sex or pizza
Review: While I must confess that I'm no seasoned Tom Robbins reader, I did have the pleasure of savoring "Fierce Invalids" while on the first leg of a long trip to China. The delectable aftertaste of that absolutely splendid literary romp drove me to Robbins again at the bookstore last week; I chose "Villa Incognito" simply because the back cover description sounded intriguing. The clerk, a T.R. fan himself, sighed when he saw my selection. "It's hardly even a whole novel," he said, and encouraged me to read, oh, pretty much any other Robbins instead.

Maybe I should have listened, and picked up "Still Life" or "Half Asleep." I might not have learned what a tanuki is (nor about their rather titillating "assets"), and perhaps I would never have been enlightened as to the four different ethnic groups in Lao society. But I would probably have spent my vacation reading something that left a discernable impression on me, the way "Fierce Invalids" did.

Looking through the other reviews here, I find that the bookstore clerk and I are not alone in wondering whether Robbins' excellent storytelling abilities sputtered to a halt on this one. Although the majority of the plot takes place in Southeast Asia, there is the occasional American interlude - but the American characters and events are so poorly interwoven into the main story that their recurrence every twenty pages or so is as jarring as an acid flashback. Any real identification with the main characters, or any shared involvement by the reader in the events taking place, is in this case hindered by Robbins penchant for espousing obscure philosophies via his verbose protagonists. (In "Fierce Invalids," I found this an endearing method of developing a personal credo for the story's hero; here, it merely comes across as Robbins rather crudely inserting himself into the very story he is creating.) Finally, the novella (for I think it is most accurately termed as such) has an ending so abruptly and inappropriately placed that even Robbins himself apparently found not one, but TWO epilogues necessary. While they *were* enough to keep me from screeching with outrage and flinging the book across the room, they surely *weren't* enough to prevent me from merely dropping it to the floor and falling asleep - hardly an enthusiastic response, I'd say.

The book is not without its merits, of course. Robbins' unforgettable and unexampled descriptive gifts are on full display here, with metaphors and turns of phrase that stick with you for a surprisingly long time. Furthermore, they're to be found on nearly every page: a random page-flipping yields "an ice cream parlor on Main Street in Hell," "something the proverbial cat *refused* to drag in," and "its mask of lipstick democracy and mascara faith." Similarly, the author bravely straddles genres and stitches together folktale with biography, history with political polemic, creating a patchwork tale that, while hardly seamless, can certainly carry the entertained reader from lecherous Japanese animal ancestors to circus clowns in Seattle without derailing. Robbins' gift for language, and for sheer imaginative thinking, is definitely on a roll here - which is why I've bumped up to 3 stars a book which in any other author's hands would surely have merited no more than two.

Unfortunately, however, this patchwork tale is full of holes, and while I was indeed entertained I simply was not engaged - a disappointment from an author I *know* has the capacity to engage his readers. Robbins' ability to provide the reader with a complete and satisfying story seems to have decoupled from his other significant gifts. While it may be anathema to say this on Amazon, if you want to read "Villa Incognito" I recommend borrowing it from your local library or from a friend. If you want to read Tom Robbins, on the other hand, start with "Fierce Invalids" and proceed to "Half Asleep" or "Still Life," which are recommended as better alternatives by both the reviewers on this site and the bookstore clerk to whom I should have listened. While I won't say I regret reading "Villa Incognito," I most certainly regret the $15 I spent on what was, in effect, half of a good Tom Robbins novel.