I'm really terrible at picking favorites. If you ask me what my favorite anime is, or my favorite song, like as not what you'll get is about five minutes of incoherent blither as I list about forty that I like. And then I'll get bogged down trying to actually decide among them all.
As you can probably tell, I was hopeless at the junior high practice of picking a 'best friend'.
I don't even have a favorite color.
I do, however, have a favorite author. Which amazes me, really.
But I love Tom Robbins beyond all sense or comprehension.
My favorite book of his is Jitterbug Perfume, followed closely by Skinny Legs And All and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. There's also Half-Asleep In Frog Pajamas, and Still Life With Woodpecker... and Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, which I -just- got a copy of. And would be reading right now, except that Boyfriend stole it to read first, damn him all to pieces.
I think you can begin to see, from the titles, why I like his work.
I can't possibly describe his writing. It's... smirky verbal pyrotechnics. I can't begin to express my admiration for his imagination and his range. If only I could make the English language stand up and dance the funky chicken like he does!
Either he does drugs, or he's just naturally psychedelic... and everything he writes, no matter how serious the events happening in the book, you can just sense him hanging over your shoulder and smirking and saying 'Get it? Get it?'
And he deals with the mysteries of the universe, too. Nothing is too weird or too sacred, and everything gets tossed in the Tom Robbins blender and comes out... much, much cooler than before. He has the unique power to make you laugh AND believe at the same time.
I desperately want to believe in his upended worldview, and for a few hours after finishing one of his books, I do. How's that for a recommendation?
