Roadside & Curbside
60 years ago today, photo from Google Images:
Born in North Carolina, reared in Virginia, Tom Robbins, 91, carved out an unconventional literary career, writing eight novels, a memoir, a novella and a collection featuring essays, reviews and short stories. His first effort, Another Roadside Attraction, published in 1971, recently came my way. Set in the Pacific northwest, close to the Canadian border, it is a wild ride whose main theme is an argument against how America, the world, had evolved to that point. It is particularly hard on Christianity, especially Catholicism, not on Christ himself but how his teachings have been perverted to aid the powers that be, capitalists in the crosshairs. The seven main characters, which include a toddler and a baboon, are essentially society dropouts, outsiders. None is older than 30. Only one is a woman, best described as a flower child. The title refers to a restaurant in a remote area that serves only hotdogs and juice and has tourists attractions that include a flea circus, a dead tsetse fly and snakes. The book’s best aspect is the command of language, as good as I’ve ever read. It is filled with crazy statements that had me wondering if the characters were always under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms. Here’s one: “…These dreams stood on pianos and shook hands backward with Errol Flynn…” Still, it isn’t nearly as baffling as Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, at least to me. As usual, I cherry-picked excerpts that express what I believe is the essence of the narrative. “The underworld persists because society needs its, insists upon it, supports it (at the same time that it denies and persecutes it, of course).” And: “…Why did the facts he pursued prove so impoverished in value, why were the value systems he examined so contrary to fact? Could mysticism help him?” And: “…The people haven’t become evil, they’ve lost their balance and become confused about what they really are.” And: “…Behind everything in life is a process that is beyond meaning. Not beyond understanding, mind you…” And: “A man can be as free as he wants to be because there’s nothing to lose and nothing to gain.” A lot of the ideas went over my head. The author’s grasp of culture and science is impressive. Those nostalgic for the late 60’s-early-70’s would probably really enjoy the work, although the narrative contains much non-pc behavior and commentary. The religious would probably be appalled. Although I’m a firm believer in capitalism, I was not angered by the novel being a put down of it. 444 users at Amazon have rated Another Roadside Attraction, forging to a consensus of 4.4 on a scale of five. I’ll go with 3.5. While I’m not crazy about the story, which is all over the place, the writing is phenomenal. 307 pages, it seems longer, as it is dense with information. More than 50 years after its publication, it is still selling modestly, a ranking of 40,000th at a venue that lists more than 15 million titles. Robbins has lived in the area in which the novel is set since he wrote it. Here’s the cover of the edition I read:
Another new term: “Job cuffing” — hunkering down in a job that you don’t love just for the winter.
Day Two of the new antenna: all channels up and running. Yay!
The world and the USA may be a mess at present, but there is always something for which to be grateful. The rain moved out and the skies cleared, allowing the floating book shop to operate. It was the best session of the year thanks to a young man who grossly overcompensated me for a bunch of business books and my own Exchanges, then asked to set up his iphone for an interview. My thanks, and to the other kind folks who made purchases, and to the gentleman who led me to a cache of Charles Dickens translations in Russian headed for the city dump. Here’s what else sold: Abe’s Story: A Holocaust Memoir by Abram Korn, Joseph Korn & Richard Voyles, The Handbook of Good English by Edward Johnson, a massive textbook on Nutrition, Bobby Flay’s Bold American Food by Bobby Flay and Joan Schwartz. I am blessed. Photo from GI:
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