Wild Ducks Flying Backward
by Tom Robbins
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom RobbinsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-29
ISBN: 0553383531
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Wild Ducks Flying Backward
Book Review: Revisitng previous adventures in writing.
Summary: 5 Stars
Wild Ducks Flying Backward is an eclectic sampling of travel articles, essays, short stories, a movie treatment, poetry, song lyrics, tributes, opinion pieces and responses to requests from magazines for writing on various issues.
I was immediately impressed by Robbins' creativity and the diverse subject matter he is willing to address in his writing. His use of language and his descriptive power and imagination are indescribable. In these samplings he comes over as a man with a delightfully wicked sense of humor. He also impresses his readers with his scholarly criticism. He is astute and a mature observer of human nature. He has the gift of being able to peel back the layers to show us man and character in his nakedness.
I got the feeling that what I see is what I get with this author. Working out what I see is at times fun, confusing, awe inspiring, daunting and over whelming. Robbins makes me want to write more and play with words and images like never before.
I particularly enjoyed the travel articles. I laughed out loud reading the "Canyon of the Vaginas" written about a trip to a remote canyon in Nevada full of vagina petroglyphs. Robbins used the essay as a spring board for a discussion on the feminine and sexual power.
There were times when the book lagged and my attention wandered. This was mostly during the extensive section of tributes. His piece on "The Doors" written following his first attendance at one of their concerts, although less developed in writing style, was interesting to me because of the picture he paints of the culture at that time. His tribute to Joseph Campbell was interesting for the same reasons. I enjoyed his tribute to Diane Keaton. Clearly this is a woman he admires and lusts after. The writing was prosaic and sensual. His tribute to Leonard Cohen took me back to my teens, and I relived the feelings of identification and depression at that time. Robbins points out the true genius of Cohen and the depth of his poetry. I want to go back and listen to all those records again, get my guitar out (save us all!) and sing!
We all know that a college town presents its own brand of waiters and waitresses. In his essay "The Genius Waitress," Robbins imagines his way and ours into the thoughts, dreams, perceptions and disappointments of such a character.
A section of the book is comprised of responses to questions asked for various publications. When asked to write about one of his favorite things Robbins wrote about the letter "Z". This essay was amazingly imaginative and the fact that he chose a letter of the alphabet to write about shows his playful and non-conformist mind.
Robbins shares his love for language and writing in a series of essays including one in response to the question; what is the Function of Metaphor?
He continues to provide food for thought for the reader and writer in such essays as:
What Do You Think Writer's Block Is and Have
You Ever Had It?
With What Fictional Character Do You Most
Identify?
Is the Writer Obligated to Use His/Her Medium
As an Instrument for Social Betterment?
Why Do You Live Where You Live?
What Was Your First Outdoor Adventure?
Do You Express Your Personal Political
opinions in Your Novels?
How Would You Evaluate John Steinbeck?
I found all of these questions thought provoking and useful for discussion in the writing class I teach.
This is a book I know I will come back to over and over again. There is much to interest a wide variety of readers in it. I find myself thinking about some of the essays at random times. I did not expect to find Zen-like studies on writing and life in this book. I was delighted by the author's depth of character, mischievousness, word-playfulness, clever wit, understanding for the human condition and compassion in this collection. This is truly a lateral thinker in the extreme. Finally, Robbins spoke to my heart in his statement "We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain."
Belinda Shoemaker MFA Creative Writing
Summary of Wild Ducks Flying Backward
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.?
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