I read my very first Tom Robbins book “Another Roadside Attraction”

VERY exciting to discover this author! Thank you Katie. Kurt Vonnegutesque, in fact he even quoted the master between the pages. Fun to read in that fucked up warped kinda way. And the last 1/4th of the book was by far the best. There is NOTHING better than getting to the end of a book and finding out that it is most outstanding. Again, in that fucked up finding Jesus and kidnapping his corspe modernistic way. LOVED IT! Cannot wait to read more!

I loved the writing…

“It was one of those mellow October days that seem concocted from a mixture of sage, polished brass and peach brandy…”

“At any rate, the information on milk containers is highly educational. My fist concepts of infinity were developed from looking at Pet milk cans when I was a kid. On the label there was a picture of a cow in a can, her big mooey head hanging out of one end of the can-another Pet milk can , naturally-and on the label of that can was the same cow in another Pet milk can, And that can also had a cow-in-can design on its label. And those cow cans, one inside the other, just went on, growing progressively smaller, as far as the eye could see. It walloped my little mind.”

“Whether a man is a criminal or a public servant is purely a matter of perspective. Man’s peculiarity ambivalent psyche permits him to operate a simultaneously according to tow opposing codes. There is the code which he professes to live by, and there is the code to whose standards he actually does adhere. The deceit is so ingrained and subtle that most men truly are unaware of it, although to psychologists, philosophers and the like, it is no news at all.”

“His face, too, is beautiful, although its classical composition is inclined to crumple when he indulges his goofy grin. Man, Purcell has a grin like the beer barrel polka. A ding-dong daddy grin. A Brooklyn Dodger gin. A grin you would wear to a Polish wedding. His smile walks in in wooly socked and suspenders and asks to borrow the funny papers. “

“The sausage is an image of rest, peace and tranquility in stark contrast to the destruction and chaos of everyday life. Consider the peaceful repose of the sausage compared with the aggressiveness and violence of bacon.”

“The principle difference between an adventurer and a suicide is that the adventurer leaves himself a margin of escape (the narrower the margin the greater the adventure), a margin who’s width and length may be determined by unknown factors but whose success ful navigation is determined by the measure of the adventurer’s nerve and wits. It is always exhilarating to live by one’s nerves or toward the summit of one’s wits.”

“Ambivalence is a bigger nuisance than schizophrenia. When you’re schizoid each of your two personalities is blissfully ignorant of the other, but when you’re ambivalent each half if you is painful aware of the conflicting half, and if you aren’t careful your whole life can turn into a taffy pull.”

“There are three mental states that interest me. These are: one, amnesia; two, euphoria; three, ecstasy. Amnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is- and still not caring.”

“Evil is what makes good possible. Good and evil have to coexist in order for the world to survive. The people’s haven’t become evil, they’ve lost their balance and become confused about what they really are.”

“I felt a strong urge to pray, an equally strong urge to rip Amanda’s panties off and make love to her on the floor, and a third urge that insisted that IO leave the Capt.. Kendrick’ Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve as swiftly as possible. ”

Yep, that about sums it up… 😉