Still Life with Woodpecker

I love this book, Still Life with Woodpecker. I read it while I was in college. I think the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I think that is when everyone first reads Tom Robbins. I started the book while I was at my mom's during break. I remember I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs to watch TV, and I found it tucked into the side of the chair. So I read. And read. I don't think I finished it while I was there. Surprising, too. I'm a fast reader. I don't think I did because I remember lying in The Apartment (so-called because it eventually became the social center of my group of college friends) reading this. And I remember buying a copy of it at the local used bookstore. It cost $3. It's still written on the inside cover.

I was fascinated by this book. I may have read it several times in a row. I was fascinated because part of the book focused on redheads (and I am one) and a pack of Camels (I smoked them at the time). Now, I am not a natural redhead, but as a friend once told me, "When God was handing out hair color, he just forgot yours. Because if anyone is a true redhead, it's you." Tom Robbins is a redhead. The main characters in the book are redheads. I loved it.

Looking back, I can't remember everything that is covered in the book. I do know the thing that struck me was when Robbins wrote that all smokers are closet pyromaniacs. I'm not sure why that never struck me before, but it was so true. Everyone I knew who smoked burned things--including me. Paper, clothing, whatever. I used to sit on the front porch and singe the fringe on my jean shorts with my cigarette. Or sometimes I would burn holes in my shorts. It was a way to pass the time.

But this book... I'm not sure I could say it changed my life, but I know it made me look at things differently. I loaned the book to a friend--I thought she would love it. She hated it. I loaned it to another, Kelley, and she loved it. But she also loves JD Salinger and John Irving--two of my other favorite authors. Kelley used to write her name in the covers of books she read, but she didn't do it with this one, I don't know why.

I've read some of Robbins other books, like Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Another Roadside Attraction, but Still Life is my favorite. probably because it was the first one of his I read.

Several years ago, Robbins was in Madison. He was doing a reading and signing for his new book. I forget the title. I showed up and the place was packed. I was in the last group to get my book signed. I bought two copies of the new book--one for me and one for my mom. Before I went I tried to find my copy of Still Life, but I couldn't. I bought a new one (I found my original copy a few months later). Robbins read. I couldn't see him, I could only hear him. I waited. I sat on the floor and read. There was a tornado warning. Store management made an announcement. Some people looked up, most just ignored it. I was in that store until almost 10:30 pm, waiting to get my books signed.

I stepped up to the table. Wow. Robbins looked old. And he was wearing these thick, black-rimmed, old man glasses. Hipster glasses, really. And he would only sign his name, nothing more. He didn't talk much. I had just colored my hair so it was a vivid red. I got up there and he smiled. I mean in kind of a knowing, secret handshake kind of way. I associated it with the red hair. He isn't a particularly good looking guy, but when he shook my hand, I blushed about five shades of red. I don't think he said anything other than "Hi," but he one of those people with that charisma that makes you the only person in the room when he speaks to you.

Still Life With Woodpecker is set in the suburbs of Seattle. Robbins lives halfway between Seattle and Bellingham. I found my old copy of Still Life while I was going through some stuff in my spare room. I decided it was time to reread it. I don't know what it will be like reading it so many years after I first read it. But it should be interesting.