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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favourite books, 23 July 2004
By A Customer
I first read this book over 20 years ago,when in my early twenties. It turned me into a lifelong Tom Robbins fan, even though some of his later work in my opinion doesn't match up to this little gem of a first novel. I gave my first copy away many years ago and haven't been able to find it again since, I won't make that same mistake once I have a copy of this reprint. To this day, some of the lines in the book are still having a positive effect. The characters you'll meet within the pages will stay with you long after you finish the story. I fell in love with Amanda, and JP Ziller inspired me to get out in the world and do my own thing. The main joy of T R's writing is brilliant, varied and many metaphors that drip from each page like lovesick tears from a young girls eye, like honey from a psychedelic beehive ( mine not TR's). So if you want a mad cap story with brilliant characters, some radical philosophy mixed up with sharp and incisive humour, then I strongly suggest that you buy this book and don't give it away.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best novels to come out of America in 20 years, 4 Feb 2002
This review is from: Another Roadside Attraction (Paperback)
Despite a slow start owing to its unusual style, Another Roadside Attraction rapidly shapes up to be one of the most relevant and fascinating novels by an American author in the last twenty years. Not much can be said about the story without giving the whole plot away, but it centres around the eventual establishment and short-lived history of a roadside zoo-cum-weenie-stand run by a couple of New Age Travellers who live there with their baby son, their business manager, Marx Marvellous, and a baboon named Mon Cul. It all sounds pretty ridiculous, but great literature has always required a temporary suspension of disbelief since the days of Shakespeare and it's not difficult to comply in this case. Mysticism and sensuality entwine alluringly throughout the intriguing story, which simultaneously slams organised religion - in particular, the Catholic Church - and instead affirms the simple value of living in harmony and peace. Robbins has managed to capture what many "hippies" probably believed in without (of course) trying to write a definitive ideological text, which would be fruitless and dull - the exact antithesis of Another Roadside Attraction. The book has so much to say on matters of spirituality, religion and society that it should probably be on every English literature syllabus going; the only reason it won't appear there is because we remain far too prudish about what our children should be reading, and, it must be said, Robbins isn't (his use of occasional strong language and occasionally graphic sex scenes are a stylistic tendency). This might offend some readers' sensibilities, but I would encourage them to try this great modern masterpiece anyway, and set some of their puritanism aside for the duration of the novel. There are few novels out there that really expand your mind, but this is undisputably one of them. Read it.. and think.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A reference point in American writing craftsmanship., 29 Dec 1998
By A Customer
I cannot walk by a bookstore without quickly glancing to see if the next Robbins novel is on the shelf yet. This was his first and mine, too. So often I've had to stop and wonder at how anyone can shape the english language so deftly. Robbins works words the way night replaces day: naturally, lovingly and unashamedly. Another Roadside Attraction and Jitterbug Perfume replace the last trace of prudish blushing about sexuality with the ease and total sense of 'without this I will cease to need to exist' that a bee displays as it participates in the mating of two flowers. Don't miss it.
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