Rating: 
Summary: I love all Tom's books... Except this one!
Review: I love all Tom's books... Except this one!Avoid at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: I am an avid Tom Robbins fan..but this book was the one stinker in the bunch. The main character was so obnoxious person, I had no sympathy for her. What was interesting - albeit disappointing - was that there was a moment near the end of the book when she could have (finally) decided to do the right thing and redeem herself...but she didn't.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not even cream, it's dream whip, gone stale and dry.
Review: Tom Robbins' formula wears a little thin after 30 years or so. He's still the master of the surprising irreverent metaphor, but the flashy froth that was new and fun in the 60s and 70s is not enough to carry a book today. The racy humor that tweaked our interest in big-thumbed cowgirls is not sexy enough to be exciting, not sleazy enough to be pornographic. It comes off as just puerile.
Rating:
Summary: Do I want to be lectured to? No.
Review: This book kept getting worse and worse, until the end, I found myself skimming pages, tracking only the plot to see if there were any twists of interest or import, only to find more of what packed the preceding hundreds of pages - self-centered, pretentious drivel passing itself off as "on the pad" enlightenment and - yikes - philosophy. To wit: no character development, no story, just archetypes parading around Seattle while the reader is lectured to in the second person. Situations conveniently set up to give Robbins a platform from which to lecture his frog/Timbuktu/alien philosophy (I'm sorry, I never quite got all that). Of course, the message to not be so material-oriented is hit upon, which is all well and good, but 400 pages worth is a bit too much for me. It's fun to be able to use the term "ad nauseum" in a review! For all his bible and faith bashing, Robbins wastes a lot of pages espousing some funky mystical philosophy about amphibians. Gotta admit, I skimmed most of it - I usually like to get from point A to point B in any piece of printed matter, not indulge an author's egocentrism. Robbins passes himself off in this one as a real-life Q-jo, the severely overweight psychic in the novel - soothsayer, all-knowing mystic; yet his overblown, hyperbole-laden prose left me feeling exhausted and detached, as if some wacked-out Branch Davidian had followed me for several city blocks, haranguing me to join him on the spaceship (or the "pad," I guess in this case), and I could not shake free from him. Like a man who reaches a breaking point - in the city one can confront the harasser and tell him to bugger off - I wanted to tell this book to bugger off each time I slammed it shut at night and flipped through the remaining pages, groaning, "80 left, 70, 60 ... won't this book ever end and please oh please stop lecturing me and is this a novel or a new-age philosophy class at the community college and I don't give a darn about Gwen and wow Larry Diamond is just too cool and isn't it only obvious by reading even the liner notes that Gwen will ultimately become as cool and enlightened as Diamond because she follows Tom Robbins' guidance so why am I even reading this?" But I kept reading. My bad. This one is written as if a a left-wing Ayn Rand wannabe on acid received his first computer with a word processing program installed - it's just as black/white, and it uses the same Rand technique - novel as soapbox, as tool. Which is fine for 18-year old conservatives looking for a voice (in the case of Rand), and "liberals," I guess, (in the case of Robbins). Disclaimer: this review is not meant to bash liberals, because for the most part, I am one politically. Made this book rather simple, though, and in my view dull. One last comment. I gave this two stars because a lot of his metaphors are really clever and funny. HOWEVER ... there are too many attempts. Every sentence contains a "like" "is" or "as" and some sort of comparison, to varying degrees of cleverness. Really. It gets so tedious ... hitting on one of five metaphors throughout the book is like a comedian hitting on only one of five jokes throughout a show - ouch. I read Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All about 10 years ago, and I just remember them being so much better ...
Rating: 
Summary: ... and thanks for all the Fish
Review: This is a subversive book, as subversive as they get. Tom Robbins managed to put into it all that matters: mushrooms, Tarot, Dogons, dolphins,the Nature of Reality, Sirius B, God, as well as the mysterious amphibian human ancestors, the Nommo which are supposed to be in a telepathic contact with the human race. Written with the metaphorical bravura and wit that have become Robbins' trademarks, the book follows Gwen, a wannabe bookie at a Seattle brokerage house as she grapples with a series of unforeseeable events which include a market crash, a kleptomaniac monkey, a Van Gogh loving Native American, rectal enema and Larry, a recent graduate from the Timbuktu University. Tim is a master of the art of "living on the Pad". While his book is consistently funny and has a couple of excellent sex scenes, the characters, the plot and the style of writing are rather similar to other R. books. The female protagonist is spunky, sexy, naïve and lacking something that only the male protagonist can provide: spiritual guidance. Despite all the joking (which I enjoyed), the undertone of HAFP is essentialy moralistic . Larry Diamond (whom I suspect to be a Robbins Doppelganger of sorts), is especially tedious with his endless sermons and unfunny misogynic quips. Nevertheless, the message when taken out of its pajamas is positive: it is about taking risks, listening to the Great Mystery and en-joying oneself.
Rating: 
Summary: Haalf Asleep In Frog Pajamas
Review: Reading even a paragraph of any Tom Robbins book is like feasting at the finest Paris restaurant. Each sentence is a luscious delight to roll around and enjoy from the entree of the meaning,to the appetizing adjectives and the adverbial side dishes. Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas is a most appropriate book today because of it's tie-in with the Stock Market and those who comandeer the marketing and selling of stocks and bonds. If one has never read a Tom Robbins novel, this is a good one to initiate a life-long love of his books. I wait patiently five to eight years to see the next book. For me, Tom Robbins is a moveable feast of fantasy and fiction woven with the tapestry of philosophy, ecology and humor. No one can make me laugh out loud like Tom Robbins. If you read one of his books, you have to go on and read them all. Like truly delectable dishes, you never get your fill.
Rating:
Summary: Not For The Self-Righteous
Review: While I agree with others that perhaps this is not Mr. Robbins' best novel, I disagree with their assesment of why. A book written in the 2nd person ("you") can only be offensive if you're not willing to find a part of the protagonist in yourself. True, she can be quite hateful at times, but her selfishness, guilt, desire for money and views on the world, when taken in their smallest aspects, can be found in all of us. This is what I found fascinating about the novel: it forced me to confront my own selfishness. Beyond all that soul searching, it's beautifully written and Gwen's struggle with her sexuality will elict many a giggle from those of us slightly more.. ahem.. experienced. If you are very proud of yourself or loathe the idea of identifying with a filipina stockbroker, go check out Oprah's book club. "Frog Pajamas" will not suit you.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best from Tom Robbins
Review: This was the second Tom Robbins book that I read, the first being Jitterbug Perfume. I found the book very entertaining, and very well researched (as with his other books), even though it was a bit of a letdown in the end.
The book created a feeling of building up to some "Grand Insight", which never really arrived in the end. But then, I suppose, that is more a masterful portrayal of life, than a lack of story-telling ability by Robbins. I would still recommend the book, even though I found Jitterbug Perfume, and later, Another Roadside Attraction, more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: No Letdowns here!
Review: I had never heard of Tom Robbins until a friend recommended his books. And yes, I mean all of his books. I decided to try out this one. I was wonderfully surprised! Tom Robbins way of writing is spectacular.. so descriptive and different from anything I've read before. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book also. Everything.. the writing style, story line and characters all blended together for a hard to put down book.
Rating:
Summary: philiosophy tom robbins style!
Review: one of my favorite books ever. tom robbins' amazing writing (have you ever tried to write in 2nd person-- very hard!)weaves an amazing tale of just a few days in a young woman's life. incorporated into the story is an amazing philiosophy on life and the origins thereof involving... frogs! can it get better than that?
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