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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Known for his meaty seriocomic novels–expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow–Tom Robbins has also published over the years a number of short pieces, predominantly nonfiction. His travel articles, essays, and tributes to actors, musicians, sex kittens, and thinkers have appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper’s, from Playboy to the New York Times, High Times, and Life. A generous sampling, collected here for the first time and including works as diverse as scholarly art criticism and some decidedly untypical country-
music lyrics, Wild Ducks Flying Backward offers a rare sweeping overview of the eclectic
sensibility of an American original.
Whether he is rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso’s Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls “the genius waitress,” Robbins’s briefer writings often exhibit the same five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a
mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language.
Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are a couple of short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an off-beat assessment of our divided nation. And wherever we open Wild Ducks Flying Backward, we’re apt to encounter examples of the intently serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described “romantic Zen hedonist” and “stray dog in the banquet halls of culture.”
From the Hardcover edition.
music lyrics, Wild Ducks Flying Backward offers a rare sweeping overview of the eclectic
sensibility of an American original.
Whether he is rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso’s Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls “the genius waitress,” Robbins’s briefer writings often exhibit the same five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a
mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language.
Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are a couple of short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an off-beat assessment of our divided nation. And wherever we open Wild Ducks Flying Backward, we’re apt to encounter examples of the intently serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described “romantic Zen hedonist” and “stray dog in the banquet halls of culture.”
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I din't expect much of this collection, but was pleasantly surprised by the first few 'travel reviews'. After that I quickly lost interest and put it away for later.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
36 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Please Don't Judge This Book By Its Cover
3 Jan 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book's halfhearted, low-budget cover screams, "I'm drivel and trash and the publisher knows it."
To judge this book by its cover would be a tragic mistake.
In this collection of essays, articles and columns written for various publications over the years, Tom Robbins proves himself wittier than Dorothy Parker, more colorful than Hunter S. Thompson, sharper in perception than Andy Rooney.
Piercing, even. A journalist of the highest order.
It's worth the price of the book just to read Miniskirt Feminism, a reminiscence of the 60's originally published in the New York Times (1995).
Buy the book. Throw away the ugly dust cover. You won't be disappointed.
To judge this book by its cover would be a tragic mistake.
In this collection of essays, articles and columns written for various publications over the years, Tom Robbins proves himself wittier than Dorothy Parker, more colorful than Hunter S. Thompson, sharper in perception than Andy Rooney.
Piercing, even. A journalist of the highest order.
It's worth the price of the book just to read Miniskirt Feminism, a reminiscence of the 60's originally published in the New York Times (1995).
Buy the book. Throw away the ugly dust cover. You won't be disappointed.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Simply Amazing
20 Oct 2005
Format:Hardcover
Just when all the bad news in the world seems to have taken the joy out of life, leave it to Tom Robbins to put events in their proper place. There is no one like him in the writing universe today that can make an insane situation seem, well quite normal. Prior to this book, I've only read his novels (many times over)but that Robbins touch works perfectly well in essays and short stories. And like his novels, after reading this book, I will go back a enjoy all his prior work.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Hard to believe they couldn't find more interesting stuff on TR's hard drive.
25 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback
I'm not a fan of short stories. I'm less of a fan of gathering together a bunch of old articles and selling them as a book. I am, however, a huge fan of Tom Robbins.
While it was good to read some Tom again, I can't say I was tremendously impressed by this selection of "short writings." Personally, in terms of cleaning out a hard drive and putting it in novel form, I much prefer Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time I did enjoy some of Tom's poetry, and the homage to the Doors but other than that, the material was seriously dated.
Hopefully there will be a new novel soon. I miss him. And these last two forays (this and Villa Incognito) have left me wanting.
While it was good to read some Tom again, I can't say I was tremendously impressed by this selection of "short writings." Personally, in terms of cleaning out a hard drive and putting it in novel form, I much prefer Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time I did enjoy some of Tom's poetry, and the homage to the Doors but other than that, the material was seriously dated.
Hopefully there will be a new novel soon. I miss him. And these last two forays (this and Villa Incognito) have left me wanting.
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