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Yes, had my life been bereft of the influence of the amazing and occasionally whacked-out brain of Tom Robbins, it would have been dimmer, duller, and sadly more normal. I must write him a note expressing my immense gratitude.
I forgot to mention Dubliners by James Joyce, a book I did not much enjoy reading and will never read again. Yet its impact was profound. It was the first book to make me really consider how people can become paralyzed in behavior destructive to themselves and others, and yet, even when they realize it, they are unable to change even to save themselves or the people they most love.
Continuing the theme of paralysis and change, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie has stayed with me because of the questions exploring change or metamorphosis. Do we have an essential center or are we simply moments strung together? It also explored the nature of evil, and the presence of good and evil in the same person. As well as the experience of the immigrant. It was another book I didn't love, yet it will probably never leave me.
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