Robbins' riff on organized religion is still as sharp and funny as it was when it was written half a century ago.
Even though it was his first novel, 'Another Roadside Attraction' already shows the structural elements Robbins continued to use in his other works: a collection of oddball characters and seemingly unrelated and wildly unlikely events, all stitched together with wry observations and astonishing metaphors. The reader is entertained, amused, and frequently baffled as to just where this journey is going but it eventually gets there and it always turns out that the trip was worth the effort.
In this debut effort, John Paul Zimmer (loincloth-clad musician, sculptor, and mystic) in company with his companion baboon, Mon Cul and his lubricious bride Amanda (the ultimate hippy-chick Earth mother) decide to rehabilitate an abandoned diner in Washington's rain-soaked Skagit Valley. There they open a hot dog stand and zoo containing, among other things, a tsetse fly preserved in amber, a flea circus whose performers are costumed by Amanda in microscopic velvet and spangles, a collection of garter snakes, and a bow-legged rooster. From there, it's but a hop, skip, and jump (which, in Robbins-land means about 200 pages) to an astonishing discovery in the catacombs of the Vatican and the need to reveal something which could bring down Western civilization. Actually, there are two decisions: should they tell, and is Western civilization worth keeping, anyway.
If one digs down below the mushroom-glazed surface, there's a great deal to think about in this novel. Robbins is not reluctant to tackle The Big Questions. Only the reader can decide who comes out on top in the resulting brawl.
Even though it was his first novel, 'Another Roadside Attraction' already shows the structural elements Robbins continued to use in his other works: a collection of oddball characters and seemingly unrelated and wildly unlikely events, all stitched together with wry observations and astonishing metaphors. The reader is entertained, amused, and frequently baffled as to just where this journey is going but it eventually gets there and it always turns out that the trip was worth the effort.
In this debut effort, John Paul Zimmer (loincloth-clad musician, sculptor, and mystic) in company with his companion baboon, Mon Cul and his lubricious bride Amanda (the ultimate hippy-chick Earth mother) decide to rehabilitate an abandoned diner in Washington's rain-soaked Skagit Valley. There they open a hot dog stand and zoo containing, among other things, a tsetse fly preserved in amber, a flea circus whose performers are costumed by Amanda in microscopic velvet and spangles, a collection of garter snakes, and a bow-legged rooster. From there, it's but a hop, skip, and jump (which, in Robbins-land means about 200 pages) to an astonishing discovery in the catacombs of the Vatican and the need to reveal something which could bring down Western civilization. Actually, there are two decisions: should they tell, and is Western civilization worth keeping, anyway.
If one digs down below the mushroom-glazed surface, there's a great deal to think about in this novel. Robbins is not reluctant to tackle The Big Questions. Only the reader can decide who comes out on top in the resulting brawl.
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