When I first moved to Seattle from small town America I was overwhelmed with how different the two worlds were. I didn't do much reading when I first arrived because it was spent working my ass off to afford a place to live and something to eat. When I finally got settled I partied a bit too hard and screwed up some friendships and was forced to move to a boarding house. That was an eye opening experience for sure. The first book I read when I lived there under those conditions was Tom Robbins Another Roadside Attraction.
"The magician's underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami. However significant that discovery may be--and there is the possibility that it could alter the destiny of each and every one of us--it is not the incident with which to begin this report."
This is the opening paragraph of this book. I knew then at 21 that I was in for a wild ride. Tom Robbins did not disappoint and I went on to read many of his other books like "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", "Jitterbug Perfume", "Skinny Legs and All", "Still Life with Woodpecker" and waited anxiously that year for "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas". Life would change after that and I moved to another part of the country. Those books did not seem as magical but maybe because I was settling down and losing my joie de vive.
It wasn't until a few years ago did I pick up his book "Villa Incognito" and remembered just how much I loved his work....how free his writing allowed me to feel. His characters take such amazing adventures. They are the home for the quirky and normally unnoticed. They have always given me a sense of being more confident that I really was. I have always needed that.
