Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas [Hardcover]

Tom Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1994

When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you—an ambitious, although ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker—are convinced that you’re facing the Weekend from Hell. Before the market reopens on Monday, you’re going to have to scramble and scheme to cover your butt, but there’s no way you can anticipate the baffling disappearance of a 300-pound psychic, the fall from grace of a born-again monkey, or the intrusion in your life of a tattooed stranger intent on blowing your mind and most of your fuses. Over these fateful three days, you will be forced to confront everything from mysterious African rituals to legendary amphibians, from tarot-card bombshells to street violence, from your own sexuality to outer space. This is, after all, a Tom Robbins novel—and the author has never been in finer form.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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 Andre, 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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Robbins offers a wild and wacky trip featuring, among other things, a stock market crash and various philosophies about meaning and the origins of cultures. Gwen, an endangered stockbroker, is involved with strait-laced Belford and his born-again monkey. When she is attracted to Larry-who has cancer and is currently between trips to Timbuktu-she must choose among the American dream, the Timbuktu alternate, and something else. The book is a whirlwind of mad incidents, semiprofound observations, and an endless supply of great lines. The author of Skinny Legs and All (LJ 3/1/90) has come up with a very funny book that might incite a bit of thinking as well as laughter.
--Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 386 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books; 1st edition (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553076256
• ISBN-13: 978-0553076257
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #971,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely Awake, July 29, 2005

By 

Stella - See all my reviews

This review is from: Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (Paperback)

I picked up this book while staying at a friend's loft in NY and only had enough time to read the first twenty-five pages before I had to leave. I was so engrossed I wanted to take it home with me. Yes, it was so brilliant I actually considered stealing from a friend. The first thing I did when I got back to LA was buy the book. I had read some Robbins as a kid and after reading this fun, brilliant, provocative book, decided to reread all of Tom Robbins books. With so many crappy, stupid, uninspired, poorly written books these days, Robbins is a breath of fresh air. Not only is he a truly great writer, a master and lover of the written word but he is a writer with something interesting to say and the smarts to back it up. Robbins knows how to construct plot and character, while mixing in so many interesting ideas without being didactic or arrogant. There is nothing cliche in what Robbins writes and he shares in an entertaining way his knowledge of so many topics. This is a man who thinks, is interested in the world seen and unseen and paralays the information into the most imaginative and fun stories I've ever read. His creativity is astonishing, his style flawless and his ideas provocative. I recommened all his books to anyone who wants to be reminded what literary genius is all about.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up folk, August 2, 2004

By 

Douglas A. Haldane "Reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (Paperback)

I don't read Tom Robbins for meaning, story, plot, characterization, or any of the other things I might look for in conventional fiction. I suspect he would scoff at the notion that he is somehow presenting a philosophy. I read Tom Robbins for his exquisite word play and his unending ability to fuel my sense of the absurd.

C'mon. Who else would define "rapscallion" as a hip-hop onion?

Given the two reasons I read his work, this book scores on both counts.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncommon Robbins, Uncommon genius., September 22, 2005

By 

Christy Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (Paperback)

I, like many others, have read most of Tom's books and while some of his main characters have been slightly annoying (Still Life with Woodpecker, anyone?), Matti takes the cake. Don't let her character dissuade you from reading the book. Her character is a money-grubbing stockbroker containing no true love or passion for life. She is intended (I believe) to represent the consumer in all of us, albeit the worst parts. She is not supposed to be likable. A likable Matti would have taken away this stories point: how even the most vile, egotistical, greedy person can transform, or should I say be pushed to transform when the stakes are raised high enough. The story begins at the start of a four-day weekend, just after a major stock crash. Matti is in jeopardy of losing her job, she can't even make the payments on her new Porsche, boo-ho! Moreover, the boyfriend that she's been dating because of his giant paycheck has decided to give it to charity. On top of everything, his monkey gets loose (did I mention that this monkey was trained to steal jewelry and that the aforementioned boyfriend has taken it upon himself to convert the monkey to Christianity?) and may be heisting peoples belongings. Craziness!

As always, Tom's writing is spectacular and you'll be learning arcane bits of knowledge on every page. Some of his ideas are crazy, but deep down are not all ideas crazy?