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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In a phantasmagorical, politically charged tale you wish would never end, Robbins holds forth--through a variety of ingenious, off-beat mouthpieces--on art (with and without caps), the Middle East, religious fanaticism of many stripes, and the seven veils of self-deception. Salome, skinny legs and all, belly-dances rapturously at Isaac & Ishmael's, a much-molested restaurant located across the street from the U.N., founded by an Arab and a Jew as an example of happy, peaceful and mutually beneficial coexistence. Ellen Cherry Charles, artist and waitress, heir to the most positive legacy of Jezebel, works at the same joint, nursing a broken heart inflicted by Boomer Petway, redneck welder/bemused darling of the New York art scene. Meanwhile, Can o' Beans, Dirty Sock, Spoon, Painted Stick and Conch Shell traverse half the world on a hejira to Jerusalem--where Conch and Painted Stick will resume religious duties in the Third Temple, dedicated (of course) to Astarte. Unless, mind you, Ellen Cherry's boil-encrusted uncle Buddy, a radio evangelist who gets turned on by Tammy Faye Bakker, manages to start WW III first. . . . Robbins's ( Jitterbug Perfume ) lust for laughs is undiminished; this prescription for sanity couldn't be better. 125,000 first printing; first serial to Esquire; BOMC and QPB selections; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
A painter's struggle with her art, a restaurant opened as an experiment in brotherhood, the journey of several inanimate objects to Jerusalem, a preacher's scheme to hasten Armageddon, and a performance of a legendary dance: these are the diverse elements around which Robbins has built this wild, controversial novel. Ellen Cherry Charles, one of the "Daughters of the Daily Spe cial" in Jitterbug Perfume ( LJ 1/85), takes center stage. She has married Boomer Petway and moved to New York, hoping to make it as a painter. Instead, she winds up a waitress at the Isaac and Ishmael, a restaurant co-owned by an Arab and a Jew. Robbins's primary concern is Middle Eastern politics, supplemented along the way with observations on art, religion, sex, and money. Few contemporary novelists mix tomfoolery and philosophy so well. This is Robbins at his best. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/90.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Storytelling,
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Ce commentaire est de: Skinny Legs and All (Paperback)
Newly married Ellen Cherry Charles and Boomer Petway are on their way from Seattle to New York, so Ellen can pursue a career as an artist. That they're traveling in a silver motor home customized to look like a giant turkey is your first clue that this book is going to be not only funny but quite different.Skinny Legs and All has been on my to-be-read pile for years. When I finally picked it up I was surprised to find an old newspaper clipping by W.P. Kinsella tucked inside. Kinsella wrote that Skinny Legs and All was one of the best books published in 1990. Although I haven't read the other titles mentioned in his article, I wholeheartedly agree on this one. During the first 50 pages, I thought the book was stunningly strange. By the halfway point I decided that the book was also really funny. By the end, I realized that it was absolutely brilliant. Tom Robbins' novel is an incredible mix of religious and philosophical renderings spiced with humor, romance, fanaticism, and the quest for love and meaning. Add to this, five inanimate objects that come to life during an intimate encounter between Boomer and Ellen, and you've got an interesting situation using multiple viewpoints, including the narrator's. Robbins employs one hilarious and clever metaphor after another to tell the story. The book has been described as controversial, and I can see why. A fanatic out to destroy other religious groups will likely offend some readers. Still, Robbins' storytelling ability is absolutely marvelous.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Deserves Six Stars,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Skinny Legs and All (Paperback)
It's important to remember while you're being absolutely blown away by this work of genius that it was written before God had George W Bush to speak to personally about his wishes for the Middle East, making it a work of uncannily accurate prophecy as well as a masterpiece of prose fiction. I have to laugh at the reviewers who whine that they need a thesaurus to read this book; I challenge anyone to find any other author who hangs more concrete, abstract, brutal, poignant, lyrical imagery on more colloquial metaphors than Robbins. This book is so good that it defies review. Read it!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Debunking an American myth,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Skinny Legs and All (Paperback)
Any novelist can use a thesaurus, but few contemporary novelists mix tomfoolery and philosophy with the magic and mayhem of Tom Robbins. In Skinny Legs and All, Robbins puts Middle Eastern politics under a prismatic lens, shedding an interesting light on art, religion, sex and consumerism in the process.This novel was my first experience with Tom Robbins, a man that I now find to be the most trail-blazing, barn-burning of authors. He has a gift for stringing words together, weaving them poetically into great metaphors and larger-than-life characters, all the while crafting this poetry into a story that reminds and re-educates us of our myths and cultures. And Skinny Legs and All is Tom Robbins at his best.
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