Still Life with Woodpecker
Worth buying if: You enjoy novels that mix romance with philosophical mischief and surreal turns.
Skip it if: You want a realistic romance with restrained prose and predictable emotional beats.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780553348972. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
This 288-page novel follows an unlikely romance while ranging through questions of identity, rebellion, and the strange rules people live by. Robbins brings the story his trademark wit and imaginative excess.
Why this book now
Its comic challenge to convention still suits readers suspicious of tidy romances and orderly explanations.
30-second preview
Two quick cards, fifteen seconds each.
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You enjoy novels that mix romance with philosophical mischief and surreal turns.
- You like Tom Robbins’s exuberant voice, wordplay, and resistance to conventional storytelling.
- You want a realistic romance with restrained prose and predictable emotional beats.
- You prefer plots that stay focused rather than detouring into ideas, jokes, and eccentric observations.
- You are specifically hunting for the newest framing rather than a backlist perspective.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780553348972
Worth buying if: You enjoy novels that mix romance with philosophical mischief and surreal turns.
Skip it if: You want a realistic romance with restrained prose and predictable emotional beats.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Light Short sit-downs
At 288 pages, this is a moderate-length novel, though its digressions and verbal play invite unhurried reading.
What stands out here
This Bantam Dell Pub Group record identifies the 1990 publication in a 288-page edition.
Best way to approach it
Read it for the voice as much as the plot, and let the comic detours and provocations shape the experience.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780553348972
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.