# RIP Tom Robbins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** books-writing-myths
**Created:** [February 10, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136 "2025-02-10T15:53:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/1 "2025-02-10T15:53:58Z")
Author [Tom Robbins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins) passed away yesterday.
> NEW YORK – Tom Robbins, the [novelist](https://apnews.com/hub/books-and-literature) and prankster-philosopher who charmed and addled millions of readers with such screwball adventures as “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “Jitterbug Perfume,” has died. He was 92.
When I was around 19, someone turned me on to their copy of “Still Live with Woodpecker” and I fell in love with his witty, absurd wordsmithing.
Surely I’m not his only fan around here?
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/2 "2025-02-10T15:56:35Z")
I read all his stuff back in the day too. He made me laugh.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/3 "2025-02-10T16:05:06Z")
I was a big Tom Robbins fan for much of my 20s. Like you, a friend of mine insisted I read “Still Life With Woodpecker” and it quickly became one of my favorite books. I bought copies of his earlier books, and bought “Jitterbug Perfume” and “Skinny Legs and All” when they were published in paperback.
But Robbins did not publish very frequently, with four or five years between books, and he kind of just fell off my radar at some point. I should go back and read some of his later novels and see if they are as good as the earlier ones I loved.
He had a great knack for wordplay and interesting turns of phrases. One that has always stuck with me was from “Woodpecker”, after the Woodpecker blows up the sci-fi convention, when he talks about how “people were milling around outside like bargain-minded lemmings at a suicide sale.”
RIP Tom.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/4 "2025-02-10T16:14:38Z")
Was a big fan for a long time. Hooked by Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Amazed by Still Life With Woodpecker and Jitterbug perfume.
A reviewer once referred to Robins’, “wacky aptness of metaphor.” I know of no better description.
“There are only two mantras, yum and yuck, mine is yum.” – Bernard Mickey Wrangle.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/5 "2025-02-10T16:24:33Z")
What is it with “Still Life with Woodpecker”? I borrowed it from my parents’ bookshelf when I was 13 or 14 and it probably messed me up for life. Not that I’m complaining, of course. RIP Tom.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/6 "2025-02-10T20:48:38Z")
I read _Woodpecker_ about a decade ago and thought it was OK but not mind-blowing or life-altering by any means. This past summer I tried reading his debut novel _Another Roadside Attraction_ but didn’t enjoy it at all, and I quit after about 50 pages. I did not identify with or care about the main characters at all. It seemed only to be relevant to readers who identify with hippie culture.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/7 "2025-02-10T21:38:09Z")
He had me hooked when he published his first book **Another Roadside Attraction**.
I still enjoy reading it from time to time. I read all his other books as soon as they came out. My two favorites are Roadside Attraction, and especially **Jitterbug Perfume** which I also enjoy revisiting.
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### Author:  [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/8 "2025-02-11T00:32:17Z")
Wow… That is my story exactly, even the age.
I have read his entire works and hold “_Jitterbug Perfume_” to be the best love story ever.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/9 "2025-02-11T01:35:16Z")
Scared me for a minute
I immediately thought of the actor Tim Robbins and Shawshank. He’s 66.
RIP Tom
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/10 "2025-02-11T05:42:26Z")
He lived on a houseboat in La Conner, WA, which is about an hour north of Seattle. I’ve been there a couple of times. Who knew I was near an accomplished literary giant? And, ashamed to admit it, I haven’t looked for any of his new stuff for a few decades. So, rectifying that now.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/11 "2025-02-11T05:50:28Z")
I loved _Another Roadside Attraction_ when I was a lad.
and I am very much not a hippie…
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### Author:  [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/12 "2025-02-11T10:17:18Z")
> [@Ponch8](#):
>
> I read _Woodpecker_ about a decade ago and thought it was OK but not mind-blowing or life-altering by any means.
I don’t require books to be mind-blowing or life-altering. Sometimes I’m just looking for a fun ride. Still Life with Woodpecker was a fun ride.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/13 "2025-02-11T14:23:40Z")
Of course, when reading Still Life With Woodpecker you need to have a pack of unfiltered Camel cigarettes handy.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/14 "2025-02-12T11:59:42Z")
I’ve read and loved his novels from _Another Roadside Attraction_ through _Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas_. _Another Roadside Attraction_ was fun, although I thought it felt a little self-conscious, as though he _knew_ that he was writing a countercultural _tour de force_ and wanted the reader to know it too.
He and Vonnegut have written some of my favorite novels, and now they’re both gone.
I has a sad.😞
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/15 "2025-02-12T22:19:53Z")
I remember how hard it was to read cowgirls slow, I didn’t want it to end.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2025, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/16 "2025-02-16T07:11:24Z")
Loved the book, was really disappointed to realize that it didn’t translate well to the screen.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/17 "2025-02-16T17:13:40Z")
The group I was in in the 70s loved _ARA_. But when _EGGtB_ came out and Robbins got much more well known it was time for the “sell out” designation. (In my opinion _EGGtB_ was a much lesser work but I wouldn’t call him a sellout.)
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### Author:  [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/18 "2025-02-16T22:36:01Z")
Indeed! _ **Jitterbug Perfume** _ has all the wonderfully colorful language of a Tom Robbins novel, smooth passages of psychedelic verbal jazz and also the most tightly constructed plot line of all his artistic works, all the way up to that sly surprise ending. But, yes, the core tale of Alobar and Kudra and their quest to be as undying as their love is one of the most beautifully cool love stories I’ve ever read & is one of the reasons I re-read it every few years.
That, and having the ailing god Pan as a character is just so very 🕶
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2025, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tom-robbins/1014136/19 "2025-02-17T23:56:03Z")
> [@cieskokid](#):
>
> ndeed! _ **Jitterbug Perfume** _ has all the wonderfully colorful language of a Tom Robbins novel, smooth passages of psychedelic verbal jazz and also the most tightly constructed plot line of all his artistic works, all the way up to that sly surprise ending. But, yes, the core tale of Alobar and Kudra and their quest to be as undying as their love is one of the most beautifully cool love stories I’ve ever read & is one of the reasons I re-read it every few years.
> That, and having the ailing god Pan as a character is just so very 🕶
Yes. You put it better than I ever could have.