A Different Drummer

Im currently in the middle of a category 1 major discovery of a new genius who will permanently remain in my life. And even better, he kind of shows me a blurry snapshot of what I have dreamt of being without fully articulating all the details.

His name is Tom.

He is an incredible writer.

With a fascination for Egypt, and the Arab world.

And a demented, beautiful first person writing style, an even mix of crazy, creative, abstract, intelligent, philosophical, simple, true....Ahh the list goes on. Needless to say I am fucking happy to have been randomly introduced to Tom Robbins by my new buddy and soon to be evil-housemate Megan. The book of his that has been schooling me hard since I picked it up a few days ago is "Still Life With Woodpecker". I will not even try to describe it in my own words, but for a few tasters:

The blurb on the back cover describes "Still Life With Woodpecker" as:

"Sort of a love story that takes place inside a packet of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads"

It had me from the first line of the blurb. Then you open the book, and before it begins, you are presented with this quote, by Franz Kafka:

"You don't need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Don't even listen, simply wait.
Don't even wait.
Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet"

And the first paragraph, on the first page, just nailed me with its truth and simplicity:

"In the last quarter of the twentieth century, at a time when Western civilisation was declining too rapidly for comfort and yet too slowly to be very exciting, much of the world sat on the edge of an increasingly expensive theatre seat, waiting - with various combinations of dread, hope, and ennui - for something momentous to occur."

Can it get any better? Short, sweet, and so on the mark. And just one page later was the real nailing:

"Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not.
Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious question is whether time has a beginning and an end.
Camus must have got up on the wrong side of the bed, and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm.
There is only one serious question. And that is:
Who knows how to make love stay?
Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself.
Answer me that and I will ease your mind about the beginning and end of time.
Answer me that and I will reveal to you the purpose of the moon."

Believe it or not, the book keeps getting better, and better. I am less than a third into it, and every sentence is starting to feel like an unbearably giant crescendo of awesome beautiful truth, the kind of thing most writers would be proud to end their lifes work with. Its just how he rolls.

If you love awesome things, read "Still Life With Woodpecker", by Tom Robbins, from here on to be referred to as Victorious Justice Tom.