Bryan Tipton

Finished reading Tom Robbins' latest novel, Villa Incognito. I flipped the last page, read the last paragraph, shrugged my shoulders, and sat the book down indifferently. Neither the reaction I expected nor desired. The novel began in classic Robbins' style. A badger with enormous testicles, uses his vast nutsack to parachute down to earth from the heavens. Four pages later he seduces a woman and they have sex. It's ironic that while anything can happen in the beginning, absolutely nothing happens at the end. I don't mind anticlimatic endings, but this novel left nothing to hold onto. It's like a mysterious fog that descends into the town, creating a mysterious ambience, but disappears without leaving a mark. The whole book is filled with Robbin's blitzkrieg prose, full of dynamic metaphors and analogies. The problem with metaphors is that if they don't work, they fail magnificently, and become a distraction. Robbins takes big risks -- the allure of his style -- but failed metaphors haunt the book, glaring like tombstones in a meadow.

One thing that I am curious about, is Tom Robbins' allure to the female population -- more so than any other author. I know a lot of women infatuated with Robbins' books. He has a rock star persona -- perhaps that is part of the attraction. I'm interested in what it is. Please enlighten me if you know the reason.