Villa Incognito, Tom Robbins
Villa Incognito, Tom Robbins
72 Rating(s)
List: $13.95 | Sale: $9.77
Club: $6.97

Villa Incognito

Author: Tom Robbins

Narrator: Barrett Whitener

Unabridged: 7 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/29/2003


Synopsis

Imagine that there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War.

Imagine that there is a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women have shared a mysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore.

Imagine just those things (don’t even try to imagine the love story) and you’ll have a foretaste of Tom Robbins’s eighth and perhaps most beautifully crafted novel--a work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat.

On one level, this is a book about identity, masquerade and disguise--about “the false mustache of the world”--but neither the mists of Laos nor the smog of Bangkok, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk of the intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the linguistic phosphor that illuminates the pages of Villa Incognito.

A female fan once wrote to Tom Robbins:
“Your books make me think, they make me laugh, they make me horny and they make me aware of the wonder of everything in life.”

Villa Incognito will surely arouse a similar response in many readers, for in its lusty, amusing way it both celebrates existence and challenges our ideas about it.

To say much more about a novel as fresh and surprising as Villa Incognito would run the risk of diluting the sheer fun of reading it. As his dedicated readers worldwide know full well, it’s best to climb aboard the Tom Robbins tilt-a-whirl, kiss preconceptions and sacred cows goodbye and simply enjoy the ride.

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” by Fernanda Pivano of Italy’s Corriere della Sera. His works include Jitterbug Perfume, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. A Southerner by birth, Tom Robbins lived in and around Seattle from 1962 until he passed away in 2025.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Arthur on February 09, 2025

Just because you’re naked Doesn’t mean you’re sexy, Just because you’re cynical Doesn’t mean you’re cool. You may tell the greatest lies And wear a brilliant disguise But you can’t escape the eyes Of the one who sees right through you. In the end what will prevail Is your passion not your tale, For love is th......more

Goodreads review by J.I. on December 17, 2012

This is probably the worst Tom Robbins I've ever read. Which isn't to say that it isn't funny. It is. It is very funny, with lots of excellent lines and clever little observations. The problem is that the characterizations, even for parody, even for humor, are flat and contrived, the philosophy espo......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on April 27, 2007

This book came to me because the recommender asked what that funny statue was in my living room. I replied, a tanuki. He looked at me strangely, so I spelled tanuki out for him. Then, much to my surprise, he said I read a book about tanukis and I thought they were made up by the author. Well, Tom Ro......more

Goodreads review by Chryste on May 23, 2021

Relieved to be done with this one. Sheesh. Tom Robbins does not age well. His brilliant literary skill is overshadowed by his persistent misogyny and tired monologues on “philosophy.” Every male character in this book reads as just another vessel through which he pontificates ad nauseum about the na......more

Goodreads review by Mat on February 17, 2014

By standard book standards, I would say that this is a four-star book, easily. But by Tom Robbins' standards, and he has set the bar for himself rather high I must say, this is just a mediocre three-star book. It starts off brilliantly and as someone living in Japan who not only runs into pictures of......more


Quotes

Praise for Tom Robbins and Villa Incognito:

“Perhaps [the] greatest book from Robbins . . . phantasmagorical, richly layered, utterly hilarious, and unexpectedly poignant.”Pages

“Robbins remains a welcome breath of fresh air in American literature.”The Globe and Mail

“Robbins, as lyrical a counterculture hero as has ever tuned in and turned on, is to words what Uri Geller is to spoons: He bends sentences into playful escapades. Robbins is as frisky as ever. . . . Bottom line: Another bedside attraction.”People

“Robbins is an artist at play in the fields of language, a Merlin of the metaphor, and linguistic crown prince . . . his eighth and best . . . is smart and very funny.”The Tulsa World

“Robbins introduces a wild cast of characters and fashions a story that crackles with wordplay, wit, and political and philosophical digressions—all of which end up being great fun.”Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Bursts with energy . . . Those who cherish his gift for metaphor, simile, and verbal riffs will revel in their plentitude here.”Entertainment Weekly

“Robbins’s latest is another wild romp. . . . Robbins’s fans will not be disappointed by this latest book; it contains all his trademarks — the friendly tone, the careering plot lines, the impressively strange characters sprung fresh and vivid from his brain.”BookPage

“[An] outrageous concoction that is a joy to the imagination . . . In vintage Robbins style, the plot whirls every which way, as the author, writing with unrestrained glee, takes potshots at societal pillars: the military, big business, and religion of all ilks. The language is eccentric, electrifying, and true to the mark. . . . This is a delectable farce, full of tantalizing secrets and bizarre disguises.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Vintage Tom Robbins. It’s all there: the oddball fantasy, social criticism, and bizarre circumstances, marinated in Western dropout culture and Eastern philosophy. . . . [His] playful style tickles and delights . . . the novel cavorts to its own primal rhythm.”USA Today

“Ebullient, irreverent, hilarious . . . Villa Incognito is Ribald fairy tale meets . . . Apocalypse Now. . . . Robbins’s writing is a romp! . . . It can make you laugh out loud. It has more original metaphors than any ten books of poetry together. The man does have, as they say, a way with words. . . . [Stubblefield’s] pontifications on the soul are wildly figurative and alone worth the price of the book.”St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Replete with literary allusions as diverse as haiku master Basho, James Michener, and Franz Kafka . . . all of which give Robbins’s prose a poetic quality, unique in contemporary literature.”The Rocky Mountain News