Still Life with Woodpecker had been buzzing around my "To Read" shelf for a while. It had a fairly high average rating, so I'm surprised that I disliked it as much as I did. This seems like a book that a younger me who was more tolerant of literary shenanigans might have liked. Too bad that ship has sailed. It's certainly written with an impressive amount of flair. Tom Robbins does have a knack for wordplay and certainly enjoys a clever metaphor. I enjoyed some of the puns and fun ways he played with language, but that was about it.

The plot flutters around aimlessly and tries very hard to be a heartwarming, funny love story. Too bad all of the characters voices feel about the same. The princess who wants to change the world? Zany, jokey character. The outlaw bomber? Zany, jokey character. The octogenarian servant lady? Zany, jokey character who doesn't speak English. Queen Tilli? Zany jokey character! Oh oh! Spaghetti oh!
They all just sort of ran together and I didn't really understand too much character motivation. Things happen because the author wants to set up jokes. It's all very smug. Towards the end I got really sick of it and it isn't even that long.

It all just felt too self satisfied. Tom Robbins must have had a great time writing it. He says as much in the few interludes where he talks about his type writer. Those also get old fast. The amount of content regarding sex also gets old. It's juvenile and sorta yucky. And this is coming from a guy who wrote a pornographic novel. I'm hoping Tom Robbins had a blast (a bomber joke!) writing this, but I wish I felt like I was invited to the party.