About the Author

Tom Robbins has been called "a vital natural resource" by The Oregonian, "one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world" by the Financial Times of London, and "the most dangerous writer in the world today" by Fernanda Pivano of Italy's Corriere della Sera. A Southerner by birth, Robbins has lived in and around Seattle since 1962.

Reviews

"Tom Robbins continues to pour water on a dozing America...the author is one of the most inventive stylists writing today."— People

"One of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world."— Financial Times, London

"If (Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All's) fuel-injected prose and far-out-in-left-field philosophy freaked you, then toddle back to Robert Fulghum, because Frog Pajamas is a scream in the same vein."—USA Today

"Rant on, Robbins; our carking, swinking, workaday world needs you."—Washington Post Book World

"Tom Robbins continues to pour water on a dozing America...the author is one of the most inventive stylists writing today."- People

"One of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world."- Financial Times, London

"If (Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All's) fuel-injected prose and far-out-in-left-field philosophy freaked you, then toddle back to Robert Fulghum, because Frog Pajamas is a scream in the same vein."-USA Today

"Rant on, Robbins; our carking, swinking, workaday world needs you."-Washington Post Book World

Robbins (Skinny Legs and All; Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) begins this disappointing novel just before Easter weekend, as commodities broker Gwen Mati-half-Filipina, half-Irish-is in her favorite Seattle bar, mourning the stock market's nosedive. A devout materialist, Gwen is concerned that an honest-to-goodness crash might expose some of her less-than-ethical maneuvers. By the time the market opens again on Monday, however, her life will be altered in ways she can't imagine. Among those promoting the changes are an obese spiritualist named ``Q-Jo,'' a pizzazzy character who exits too soon from the story; Larry Diamond, Robbins's requisite mystery man on a bike; and André, Europe's most notorious simian jewel thief. Devotees of the serious should avoid Robbins-this volume, for instance, contains discussions about extraterrestrials who take the form of amphibious humanoids and about the effect of eating asparagus on a person's urine. All of this is, for Robbins anyway, fairly safe territory-a quirky female protagonist undergoing life changes at the last minute-but something goes wrong here. The biggest problem may be Gwen herself: an unpleasant character, she's greedy, manipulative and without a trace of remorse. Though Robbins, who narrates to Gwen in the second person, can still put together clever turns-of-phrase (``Tim-buk-tu. One of the phonetic wonders of the world''; ``haughty as an unpaired chopstick''), he seems unable to distinguish details and characters worth hanging a plot on from those best discarded. (Sept.)