Wild Ducks Flying Backward The Short Writings of Tom Robbins
I'm not sure why I haven't read more Tom Robbins. His style seems right up my alley and the further I read into this, the more I realized that some writers just have the ability to put their voice in your head. On top of that, Robbins has a unique usage of language that distinguishes him from most others. Maybe with more practice I'll be able to do the same. Until then, I'll just have to continue to WOW you with dick and fart jokes.
This book is a collection of essays Robbins wrote for various magazines, primarily Esquire. It consists of poems, musings, critiques, tributes, responses, and travelogues. Basically it's as if you are reading Tom Robbins blog, only in handy, organized, book format. I found the travelogues very interesting and the rest of the groupings hit and miss. The critiques were very snooze inducing, but I mainly blame that on my ignorance of the subject matter. Sorry, I don't know much about Morris Louis. I've only vaguely heard of Leo Kenney. But, I did read them all and I got a little something out of all of them, be they a somewhat boring topic or not. You see, when you have 'the voice', you could write down anything and I'd read it just for the fear that if I skipped past them I'd wind up missing something important.
From what I understand, most people either love or hate Robbins. If you love his novels, you might be disappointed with this book. It's clearly a shameless ploy to make a buck. Virtually nothing in this book was written recently. Most of it comes from articles written in the eighties and nineties. However, if you despise Robbins, you might pick this book up and read through a couple of the essays. The voice on the page may tell you to read more. At least I think that's what it was telling me ... Read More ... Set Fires ... it's really hard to tell with Tom Robbins.
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