List Books In Pursuance Of Skinny Legs and All
| Original Title: | Skinny Legs and All |
| ISBN: | 1842430343 (ISBN13: 9781842430347) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Tom Robbins
Paperback | Pages: 422 pages Rating: 4.05 | 39623 Users | 1359 Reviews
Commentary Concering Books Skinny Legs and All
I can't think of any other book I've read very recently that left my mind as thoroughly blown as Skinny Legs and All. I'd only read one other Tom Robbins book -- Still Life With Woodpecker -- so I was prepared for his playfulness, humor, intricate (but goofy) language, and overall trippy feel that all come with just about everything he rights. But I was not prepared for Skinny Legs. This book is so dense with literary magnificence that you could chew it like you had a whole mouth full of sticky bubble gum. I dog-eared more pages and marked more passages in this book than any other I've ever read by a long shot. Skinny Legs deals with so many topics, many of which are classical in nature: love, sex, family, art, compassion, work, religion. But it all revolves around a more specific point of the conflicts in the Middle East, primarily between Jews and Arabs. There's lots of history, spirituality, and ridiculousness all spun together -- about the Middle East especially but also about everything else surrounding it (both geographically and more abstractly). Were I a teacher of Middle East studies or any subject that dealt with the Judaism/Islam conflict specifically, this book would be required reading if for no other reason than to lighten the tension -- but hopefully also to open some minds and spark a more creative and intelligent dialogue built not on dogma but on critical thinking and compassion. The book says great things about all the topics it touches on, but to the topic of the Middle East specifically it is blazingly relevant and even prophetic in its own right. Even now, with the book being 18 years old, it hasn't lost a lick of power or shown its age. Nothing in the writing itself ever gave me the impression that the book was written any earlier than yesterday. Anyway, I'm mostly just spitting out tidbits -- let me try to formulate something more concrete. It was very, very good. Long and complex, but good. Robbins is a master of language and imagery. He gives the impression of writing with very reckless abandon. It's like he scribbled down every single thing that came to his mind while writing the story, omitting nothing and not even considering apologizing for such craziness. And yet, it works. The madness all comes together without ever seeming structured hardly at all. As if there's not a method to the madness, but that the method IS the madness. In fact I wish my review of the book could be half as perfectly cohesive as the novel itself managed to be in the end. I could rant and ramble about this fantastic book for hours on end (and probably will to my poor unfortunate friends and acquaintances), but I'll just start wrapping up and say that this one is indeed highly recommended. It's not the quickest read in the world because you have to use your brain, sense of humor, and imagination rather extensively and mostly constantly -- but it's very, very worth it. I'm not normally quite this scatterbrained in my reviewing of a book, but it really was that good!
Present Based On Books Skinny Legs and All
| Title | : | Skinny Legs and All |
| Author | : | Tom Robbins |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 422 pages |
| Published | : | March 10th 2002 by No Exit Press (first published 1990) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Humor. Literature. Novels. Magical Realism. Contemporary. Fantasy |
Rating Based On Books Skinny Legs and All
Ratings: 4.05 From 39623 Users | 1359 ReviewsRate Based On Books Skinny Legs and All
3.5/5I enjoyed this book, and the story was quite satisfying. But Robbins hackneyed digressions and similes turned me off. I found my eyes glazing over the words or simply skipping paragraphs. I felt that Ellen was a clearly drawn character but the others like Boomer or Spike or even Buddy didn't quite seem as clear. Hopefully the next Robbins book I read will be more satisfying.Clever For the Sake of Cleverness (2012)Robbins, Tom (1990). Skinny Legs and All. New York: Bantam.This novel is about Tom Robbins, who wants to show you how clever, funny, and sophisticated he is. With respect to that goal, the book succeeds.However, does he create and motivate interesting characters? No. Does he develop an interesting story? No. Does he elucidate some significant point? No. Does he create a haunting sense of place or time? No. Does he skewer social or political practices with
this book's jacket description : this book :: funny movie trailer : movie that shot its wad in the trailerThe premise sounds wild and funny and makes you wonder, briefly, how he could pull it off. And then he doesn't.
Perhaps, in this particularly cynical day and age, it is hardly surprising that the most philosophically bent of Tom Robbins' characters in Skinny Legs and All is a can of beans. A redneck welder-turned-artist is a close second, expressing his own brand of somewhat confused philosophies regarding art, love, and the state of the world.Robbins uses his pontificating Can O'Beans and the can's animated inanimate friends to take the plot of Skinny Legs and All to a higher level of academic thought
This is the best book I've ever read! Robbins keeps me on my toes with his vocabulary and uses unique characters to provide interesting perspectives on cultural clashes and life in general. I love this guy!
I've heard about how good Tom Robbins is for quite a long time, and finally picked up one of his novels at the insistence of a friend. I'm so glad I did. Skinny Legs and All is now officially making it onto my "best reads of '09" list (yes, I do actually keep lists).I'm not sure where to begin with this one... the book is funny, controversial, and relevant. It can be confusing, but it's the sort of thing the reader has to let slide. I speak from experience when I say that if you accept the
I read this in high school, and I'm not sure if I would like it better now, or hate it now.
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