Rating: 
Summary: So what is so special...
Review: ...about this book? Seriously, I'd like to know. Granted, TR regales us with dead-Pan views of Life, Universe and Everything. Yet i find the book unfunny and perhaps even boring. ...it is a sentimental, pretentious sigh of nostalgia by a 60/70ies satyr for the psychedelic highs of the good old times. So retro.
Rating: 
Summary: Jitterbug Perfume a triumph for Beet
Review: One always remembers those first time events. The first flirtation. The first kiss. The first wrinkle, and like Alobar -the first grey hair. Reading Jitterbug Perfume for the first time will stay with me forever.To be honest, I have been delaying reading the last few pages for how long now, selfishly extending the pure pleasure of reading Tom Robbins'saga. An unorthodox way of reading a "not put downable" book, but such is the nature of this momentous book. Jitterbug Perfume is a benchmark in contemporary writing, defining an era. It is also powerful enough to start a beet revolution. Food lovers, take note: "The beet is the most intense of vegetables."
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book
Review: This is an amazing book. Deals with a long period of time and really is an eye opener. The longest love story ever written. Not in pages, but in the time period in which it begins and ends. This is one of Tom Robbins funniest and at his peak as far as I am concerned.
Rating:
Summary: required reading for anyone and everyone!
Review: Tom Robbins is a writer without an equal in this world today. He
has helped me deal with "reality" and keep my "sanity". He has
more insightful sightings, and ingenious prophecies than any
of the other writers I've read. You must read ALL his books,like I have, countless times, in order to get all his messages! There is no other other writers, besides Gilda Radner, that can make you cry at the begining of a paragraph,
then laugh off your seat at the end. He is also an expert on health, especially with the hot baths and cold rinse, it is a
medical standard, I'm an EMT and working on a paramedic, then doctor's degree. I feel sorry for anyone that hasn't shared his
joyous scribes, and I suggest you run to your nearest library
to enrich your imagination!! As I said before, he's an expert
in this book, with his message of heating and cooling your blood. It's cured me, along with the belly laughs that no other
other writer can give me, and believe me, I've read ALL of them. Three cheers and many, many, thanks to this very insightful man for sharing his ideas with the rest of the world.
Thanks again, a Godzillion times, for sharing your thoughts with
the rest of us in our hopeless, pitiful world. Kathleen Krol
Rating:
Summary: train-in for longevity
Review: Haven't read it in years and years. Ha, where did I put that book? Mostly high recommendation to open minds, and more highly recommended to those in a walnut shell, maybe just maybe, something will leech through! so, HA and LOL, if you have a sense of humor and especially if you don't, read this, lighten up. and just have some fun.......
isn't that why you ARE here?
You can either say "oooops" at the end or just float away ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly bad writing from presumably accomplished author
Review: I am absolutely astounded at the reviews this book has received here. This is the first Tom Robbins book I have ever read, and I can assure you, it will also be the last. Just to summarize: I thought it was a really dumb story, that was amazingly poorly written, by an author who doesn't seem to know the first thing about writing fiction other than what he learned from reading Dave Barry's Big Trouble, which is the only other book this bad that I had to finish, since both were selections of our Book Club. The story line has no continuity whatsoever, and it's never really clear to me what the 3 different sets of contemporary characters/settings were doing in this story. Even the construction was poor, spending 2 or 3 pages on each of the contemporary settings, and then launching into 100 pages of ancient bohemia, causing you to completely lose the thread of who or what the comtemporary charancters/settings were all about; and then he does this all over again! And what about "Wiggs Dannyboy"??? A truly absurd name that belongs in Harry Potter, not in a work of adult literary fiction. And the images and similes in this book were nothing short of disgraceful. I could almost forgive "semen-greased teeth" or "toy boats floating in her underpants" as throw-away lines, that even Mr. Robbins probably regrets at this point, but when lines like this get repeatedly thrown at you, it becomes increasingly annoying. Consider this one, which really takes the cake: "The trip left the girl gaga, goofy, tainted, transformed, her nose a busted hymen through which sperm of a thousand colors swam a hootchy-kootchy stroke into her cerebral lagoon." A line like that is beyond embarrassing and amateurish. My wife put it best -- she said this books reads like it was written by somone on drugs. I would embellish that statement slightly by saying that it reads like it was written either BY or FOR someone on drugs. I can just picture some stoner reading the line quoted above, and going, "wow, that's really heavy, man!" Mr. Robbins, you badly need to go back to writing school.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary book
Review: This is a fantastic book. If you want to know more about life, death, world history, religion, and so on, then read this book. This book is very philosophical and thought-provoking. But unlike many "thinky" books, this one leaves you feeling very happy and optimistic in the end. Being from India, my favorite character was Kudra, and I can totally see how a heroine like Kudra could change lives in my country. Indeed, Robbins's theory of how we should avoid being "reptilian" and strive towards being more "floral" is a message that should be spread all around the world. We're living in strange times, and I wish all the politicians of our world were required to read this book. Highly recommended for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Make believe peters out
Review: The novel starts out strong but it just peters out. It feels like Robbins peeked and then had to end it to get on some other project. It's a shame too because the hocus pocus was almost believable until a certain point and then I was like - what the hell just happened? So read it but buy it cheap and used and pass it on down the line.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Magical Writing!
Review: I had never heard of this book or the author until I fell in love with a song from the band Now is Now that was inspired by this book so I had to read it. To call this book the most original piece of fiction I've ever read wouldn't do the book justice. As quickly as I thought I knew what was going on it would turn left and then right before I could get my bearings. The writing style is so unique, simple and eloquent all at once that I loved every page of this book. I was extremely down when it came to an end. I wanted to know more, but I'm glad that it was left open for me to imagine! What a great book!
Rating:
Summary: characters, setting, plot, language, WRITING...it's all here
Review: This is my first Robbins' reading, recommended by a good friend with great taste in books. This book has just about everything I could ever ask for in a read: amazing, memorable characters that are so strange and unique that they feel all too real; dialouge lovingly rendered for each character; a wild ride across the globe, through history, customs, food, clothing, mating rituals, social class, and mythology; an amazingly intricate and creative plot that eventually ties up in the end; and finally, a grand theme that serves as the foundation to this whole wonderful, wild, imaginative, freeing ride. One gets the feeling that Robbins had a grand time writing this book. I was laughing out loud on one page, underlining passages of exquisite wisdom the next. Everything flows so naturally; the feel of this book is LIGHT, airy, featherweight. Yet like a drone or mantra, its rhythm and texture winds its way into you until you have been relaxed by Robbins' prose into another mindscape: HIS, or perhaps, yours, expanded. Robbins is a master of metaphors. And comedy. And when he combines the two, you WILL be re-reading passages wondering "how did he do that?" Robbins is truly a master and has a strong, unique, comedic, wise, wild, creative voice. Highly recommended. I guess I will soon be reading "Jitterbug Perfume" for a second, third, fourth, etc. time.
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