Wild Ducks Flying Backward - Tom Robbins

Known for his meaty seriocomic novels--expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow--Robbins presents a generous sampling of his briefer writings. Known for his meaty seriocomic novels, Tom Robbins's shorter work has appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper's , from Playboy to the New York Times . Collected here for the first time in paperback, the essays, articles, observations--and even some untypical country-music lyrics--offer a rare overview of the eclectic sensibility of an American original. Whether rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso's Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls the genius waitress, Tom Robbins's briefer writings exhibit the five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language. Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are brand-new short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an offbeat assessment of our divided nation. Wherever you open Wild Ducks Flying Backward , you'll encounter the serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described romantic Zen hedonist and stray dog in the banquet halls of culture.