Pat Rondon reviewed Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
None
2 stars
The setup is standard Robbins: a smart, successful, independent-but-inhibited woman finds sexual and spiritual enlightenment from an oversexed, crass-but-sagacious older man who's played by society's rules and decided to seek happiness elsewhere. A handful of forgettable supporting characters come and go, displaying plenty of quirks but no substance. The plot goes nowhere, the whole thing is way too long, the main characters are unrelatable at best and detestable at worst, and the whole novel is surprisingly joyless - or maybe too self-consciously joyful - for a Robbins book. Even the one-off witticisms that usually save his bad novels are missing here.
Read Jitterbug Perfume or Skinny Legs and All instead.
The setup is standard Robbins: a smart, successful, independent-but-inhibited woman finds sexual and spiritual enlightenment from an oversexed, crass-but-sagacious older man who's played by society's rules and decided to seek happiness elsewhere. A handful of forgettable supporting characters come and go, displaying plenty of quirks but no substance. The plot goes nowhere, the whole thing is way too long, the main characters are unrelatable at best and detestable at worst, and the whole novel is surprisingly joyless - or maybe too self-consciously joyful - for a Robbins book. Even the one-off witticisms that usually save his bad novels are missing here.
Read Jitterbug Perfume or Skinny Legs and All instead.
