Rating: 
Summary: A book for all seasons
Review: This book is great. I would say that when you read it you should sit down and take one day to read it so that you can become absorbed in the little world that it makes. Screw Romeo and Juliet, this is the greatest love story of all time. The writing is so superb and fluid. I love how Robbins writes about the typewriter and then the story. This is my personal Robbins favorite, with Cowgirls getting the blues being close second. This is a must read! I can't even describe in words how much I enjoyed reading this book. It's very good for "non-readers", because you don't even feel like you're reading a book at all. Thumbs up on this one
Rating: 
Summary: Along with JL Seagull, the worst book I've ever read...
Review: Like one of the other reviewers, I too read these to appease a woman. An incredible waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: All things are connected.
Review: "Read this book," I was told about fifteen years ago, "it will change your life." I read it and now distribute the book much like a missionary. While picking up several copies near the holiday season several years ago, the pretty redheaded cashier looked at me and said, "Have you read it? "It changed my life," I told her. "I know," she said, "it changed mine." (The book holds special significance for redheads.) Such is the apparent cult following of this work and this author. Will it change your life? Maybe. Not everybody gets it; but everybody I have ever discussed the book with enjoyed it immensely. What's the attraction? The book begins with the premise that "the last quarter of the twentieth century was a severe period for lovers," and suggests "only one serious question exists: Who knows how to make love stay?" What follows is a whimsical and zany love story. The answer to the question is not directly revealed, but the formula for its solution is provided. Yet, not everybody gets it. The chapters are chopped up into relatively short narrative syllogisms, each proving a philosophical point. The author even taunts the reader about a third of the way into the story admonishing that "just when you thought you were settling into a good story, you realize philosophy is what you're getting." I have examined and studied the phenomena of this book and have come to the conclusion that, when reduced to its essence, it is Jungian philosophy disguised as kitsch entertainment. Jungian philosophy: the collective unconscious -- everything is connected. But Robbins takes aspects of such theory to the moon and beyond, and entertains the implication that truly all things are connected. The notion that consciousness is everywhere has been dubbed panpsychism by modern philosophy. Panpsychism, although not identified as such, is a recurrent theme in all of the author's subsequent works: it's his thing: "A camels pack, Adolph's Meat Tenderizer - almost all inanimate objects - are transparent doors to experience, if you know how to look through them." [p. 253] "There is meaning in everything, all things are connected. [p. 254] If you do not believe this read the author's next novel, "Skinny Legs and All," where three of the main protagonists are a fork, a spoon and a stick. Although the author never uses the word, Robbins is imploring us to live outside the paradigm, which includes thinking, loving and feeling outside the paradigm. Embrace so-called insanities: "There are essential and inessential insanities. The latter are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon. Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety - garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanities are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo coo. Inessential insanities get one in trouble with one-self. Essential insanities get one in trouble with others. It is always preferable to be in trouble with others. In fact, it may be essential." But what if you read the book and it does not change your life, will you still like the story? Tom Robbins is opposed to story summations (a position shared with J.D. Salinger), and plots for Robbins are just a medium for his message. The lovers in this story, Leigh-Cheri (a voluptuous cheerleader from Seattle, of royal parentage, presently in exile) and The Woodpecker (the pseudonym for a redheaded, romantic, anarchist bomber), are marvelous characters not soon to be forgotten. Tom Robbins "is a world-class story teller" and Thomas Pynchon agrees with me (the quote is his). We cannot both be wrong. If I run into you on the street I just might give you a copy of this book. Rather than wait, I suggest you get it, read it, and pass it on. What's the worst that could happen?
Rating:
Summary: Crazy but true
Review: I just happened to pick up this book and read it a few days after I left my dearest love in Hawaii for reasons unknown. When the heroine flys off to Hawaii in the first few chapters, I fell into the book and devoured it. The "making love stay" theme was actually inspiring to me even with all the wacky events that occur. It makes me believe that anything could happen. It will make you believe in true love again. Read it. Lend it. Read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: A little taste to get you started...
Review: Still Life served as my introduction to Robbins, and will always have a special place in my heart. At the very least, it made me appreciate being a redhead more than I ever did before. Another reviewer said that Robbins treats sex "casually" but I would have to disagree. If I may be so bold, I think the prevailing attitude in this book is that sex comes in many flavors, as many as you dare to create. The act itself is not to be put upon an alter but the sentiment between the participants is what decides how hallowed or shallow the act actually is. And if it's just sex to serve a physical purpose, then that's cool, too.
Rating:
Summary: hey, now! just because i'm an english major...
Review: doesn't mean i only read the classics! i happen to take offense to the review below that basically says that everybody will like this book, except english majors and other people of that type, who take themselves way too seriously. whatever! i'll have you know that tom robbins is read in the 400 level classes of our english department. sure, he's not for everybody, but don't lump people into categories because you have some sort of prejudice against literary types. i adore tom robbins. many people i know, who happen to be very literary-minded people, love tom robbins, and are even more passionate about his postmodern wackiness than i am. this is a great book, as are all of his novels. thanks for reading my rant...
Rating:
Summary: good, but not Robbins' best work
Review: In Still Life, Robbins explores what makes a person an outlaw, as opposed to just a criminal. The main characters are Princess Leigh-Cheri, who brings to mind most of Robbins' other female leads, particularly Cherry of Skinny Legs and All, and Bernard Wrangle, aka The Woodpecker. As usual, Robbins tries to incorporate renegade theology into his book, but this time, it doesn't quite seem to gel. His research is usually much more plausible, but this time, he flies by the seat of his pants, perhaps reflecting the chaotic interests of Bernard. It was dissappointing, however, that the interesting and creative use made of myth in Skinny Legs and All or Jitterbug Perfume was missing from Still Life. The characters are interesting though perhaps harder to actually like, and Robbins' usual social commentary lacks the sincerity and conviction of other novels. The section dealing with the alternate world inside the pack of Camel cigarettes is the most realistic and interesting (and surreal) part of the novel, though that could have been what Robbins had in mind to emphasize the absurdity of society. Like his other novels, Robbins incorporates sexuality almost casually within the novel, as causually as contemporary society does. Robbins points out the hypocrasies and harsh realities that lie within our society and are (alas) taken for granted--after all, he asks us, why should his novel be shocking when, to some people, child abuse isn't? Why the selective indignation? Why should we judge his characters harshly when all kinds of people do the same thing and we forgive or pretend not to notice? All in all, Still Life is not Robbins' best work, but is par for the course as far as his usual themes go. There are flaws within this novel that are not present in some of his others, but Still Life is worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: "Still Life" crammed with amazing insight on human relations
Review: Initially a fan of such classics as "Anna Karenina" and "Brothers Karamazov" I expanded my literary horizon to unthinkable boundaries after Tom Robbins' "Still Life With Woodpecker" fell into my hands. Robbins' insight on human behavior on both a social and intimate level along with satyrical humor and an outrageous plot make for a perfect blend. Robbins tells the story of a red-haired princess who falls for a rebelious bomber and their effort of "making love stay." The story line ranges from bizzare Argon aliens vacationing in Hawaii to Emirate sheiks building commercialist pyramids. Robbins' vivid imagination and outrageous similes paint a classic love tale in a crazy psychedelic picture. His original diction, and odd "interludes" create a truly authentic book, which makes for an enjoyable read and a crazy ride into a hyperbole of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the
Review: I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that will hate this book. A friend recommended it to me and I decided to read it, if only to placate her. After the first 100 pages, I decided that this book was the most idiotic thing I'd ever read and was definitely beneath my reading ability. But then I lightened up, stopped taking myself so seriously, and realized that I was having more fun reading Robbin's then any other author. His style probably isn't for everyone--especially literary professors, English majors, and people that only read the so called classics. But for anyone who loves the moon, is fascinated with Camel ciggarettes, and who enjoy reading because it's fun, I definitely recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Where does he come up with this stuff?
Review: For the majority of the book, Tom Robbins exhibits himself as a whimsical and quirky writer, with whimsical and quirky characters in whimsical and quirky settings. Wonderful! The world needs more of this! And then just when you think that he's gotten about as silly and strange as he possibly could, then he adds pure maddening brilliance on top. The book reads as though it was laboriously and maniacally researched yet composed in one eccentrically inspired weekend on an overdose of Vivarin! My favorite section of the book is when he goes on for chapters about the correlation between redheads, the moon, Camel cigarettes and genius, and not-so-subtly revealing himself to be of this breed. This is the book that made Robbins my favorite author.
| 
