Published by Penguin Books, 1975, softcover, 347 pages, condition: very good.
'"There are three things I like," Amanda exclaimed upon awakening from her first long trance. "These are: the butterfly, the cactus, and the Infinite Goof." Later she amended the list to include mushrooms and motorcycles.'
The legend begins with the first epic strike of one of the most underrated and ingenious, both comedy and cutting criticism using, authors.
Do you know how he writes these unique pieces? Robbins is so obsessed and perfectionistic that he rewrites it, again and again, word for word, sentence for sentence, until it fits his standards and just continues after that. I´ve 2 to 3 other authors with similar, pedantic work schedules and techniques in mind, but can´t remember them, just that one called it a bit of self-torture and I don´t know if Robbins enjoys it or just exaggerates the hard fun element of the creative process.
This pumping of tears, sweat, and, hopefully just metaphorically, blood into the novels can be felt at each moment, it´s a very rare perfection of each dialogue, description, and, as a bonus, everything is interconnected and always leads to a satisfying end that shows how much detail has been invested in making it a multi layered reading experience. Wise dialogues and monologues change with long diatribes or introspectives of the characters and one often stops reading to think about the implications. A bit of a warning here, Robbins is no Pratchett, a bit closer to Ruff and Robbins, but by far the most hardcore one, although there is Sharpe too, all together philosophical, funny, critical, and very explicit stuff. Especially the last element, both regarding sexual content and the indirect Chuck Norrisness of the action, are reasons for why people should first try a bit of his amazing, and in my case very tasty and nourishing, alphabet soup, because tastes are different.
It´s a bit of a plague or cholera situation, if Robbins would have written with less intensity, he could have multiplicated his sales, but then it would have lost its uniqueness, so it´s good that the didn´t self censor to conform the market forces.Oh, I should possibly mention something about the novel too and not just drivel about the greatness of the author, so let´s roll with that. The strong female lead protagonist lives in a world of rebellion, revolution, and recommencement, lives free love, and owns, together with the other protagonists, quite any aspect of religion and politics that are messes. That´s the second reason why this one is not for everyone, because Robbins knows no subtle use of velvet gloves, but goes on full aggressive provocation and confrontation which can be interpreted as timeless social critic or blasphemy and dangerous demagogy, depending on the standpoint. I am of course jaying at it even stupider than usual, because it´s extraordinary vivisection of the flaws of our society I love to flame and troll against.
Robbins gets more entertaining, character based, and less deeply sarcastic in his following novels I would also call milestones and masterworks, especially in contrast to this often overrated, indie, beatnik authors who are just provoking to get the predictable bite reflexes of their opponents starting without being able to tell a great story or criticize the system in more complex ways than getting wasted, violent, or as perverted as possible. I deem many cult authors between completely overrated and trash, they were simply the first ones to write predecessors of average fringe pseudo philosophical extreme horror with some naughty words, a final reason why Robbins could be mistaken for such literature, as he has a similar cult reputation.
