Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

By: Tom Robbins

Narrated by: Barry Bostwick

Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Imagine this: When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you, an ambitious broker, not overly successful or ethical, know you're facing the Weekend from Hell. With only 72 hours to scheme and scramble your way out of this nightmare, you find yourself confronted with a 300-pound psychic, a tattooed stranger, African rituals, legendary amphibians, outer space, and your own sexuality. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, the highly praised novel from Tom Robbins, places the listener at the center of a wildly psychotic journey. When it is over, will you - and the world - be wiser, sadder, better in some way? Or merely possessed of a complete understanding of the surprisingly serious phrase, "half asleep in frog pajamas?"

©1994 by Tom Robbins (P)1995 by Dove Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Trying to describe a Tom Robbins novel by summarizing its plot is like pointing to a snowflake and asking someone to grasp the concept of downhill skiing." (The Los Angeles Times)

As good today as the day it was published

I’ve read this book cover to cover, and listened to the audio book 2 previous times. Yesterday I enjoyed the story more than ever. Robbins’ way with words is undeniable and the story of urban un-health struck me in a way it hadn’t before. I will certainly be listening to this again.

Fantastic

Tom Robbins is a master, and this is a good one. Barry Bostwick as a reader was just awesome. I highly recommend this, or any of Tom Robbin's books.

Objectivism collides with mysticism

A hilarious romp where objectivism collides with mysticism -- while taking neither too seriously. A cadre of clandestine characters consider all manner of profit and personal transformation. Will personal responsibility overcome victimization and entitlement? Will self-indulgence be defeated by self-actualization. Can a contrary consciousness kill cancer? Will anyone ever get on the pad? The narrator, Barry Bostwick, is exceptional.

Just a great story and interesting characters

Another great from Mr. Robbins - interesting and enjoyable right to, and especially in, the end

Witty doesn't even come close to describing.

Amazing
Witty doesn't even come close to describing this work of verbal art!!!!
Amazing. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Wow. Wow. Wow.

Tom Robbins is my Jesus

Amen
Bostwick’s Larry Diamond impression is a little cringe…but nothing can subdue this journey

Stay Away

This was one of the worst audio books ever! The reader( who I like as an actor) was terrible and his accents of women made me cringe. This was my book club selection so I was forced to finish it. Perhaps reading it would have been better - the audio editor should have been fired.

If a ZERO stars rating was ever applicable...

I found this book to be thoroughly UNenjoyable. Once again, Tom Robbins has populated a narrative with depressingly unlikable characters, each burdened by a vast array of disturbing idiosyncrasies. Based upon the rave reviews that Robbins' works often receive, I had hoped that "Fierce Invalids" was merely a freakish aberration that had deluded readers into lauding a comic farce for its shear eccentricity. Instead, it seems clear that a perverse universe is an integral element of Robbins' "style". I shall not be fooled again by clever titles or the misguided ravings of fanatical Robbins worshippers. The emperor has no clothes. This book is simply terrible--road kill on the literary freeway. Passersby are tempted to stare in grotesque fascination but my advice is to resist these urges at all cost! Robbins writing style is littered throughout with awkwardly bizarre turns of phrase and alliteration so heavy-handed that it one would think the text was written by a freshman English major who just discovered how to use a thesaurus.

Barry Bostwick's clumsy narration only adds to the overall displeasure. While Bostwick is a talented actor, his amateurish bludgeoning of this text only establishes how very talented professional narrators really are. Bostwick wildly pitch poles between reverberant shouts and inaudible whispers requiring the listener to remain ever poised above the volume controls and the rewind buttons to even understand much of the dialogue. His voice characterizations are sadly inept, reducing one female voice to a breathy whisper and others to poor impressions of W.C. Fields and Harvey Firestein.

There are many fine audio books available. This is not one of them.

Men shouldn't write as women

I was really put off by the way the male author chose to portray the mind of a female character.

Terrible Sound Quality, Entertaining Read

This was not my favorite Tom Robbins. For my money, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates was more cohesive, funny, and entertaining. This was not bad, but had 2 things against it. The first is horrendous sound quality... this must have been recorded in a basement using an old radioshack mic on a TRS-80. The reader did a fine job (in spite of the fact that maybe should have been a woman like the main character), but there was no compression or proper post-production, so the female character was too quiet and then when you'd turn up the sound the male character would nasally grate... The second thing is this is written in the 2nd person, so everything is "you did this", etc. It takes some getting used to.