Still Life with Woodpecker Paperback - 1990

Summary

From the jacket flap

"Still Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes. It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders. It also deals with the problem of redheads.

Excerpt

If this typewriter can't do it, then fuck it, it can't be done.

This is the all-new Remington SL3, the machine that answers the question, "Which is harder, trying to read The Brothers Karamazov while listening to Stevie Wonder records or hunting for Easter eggs on a typewriter keyboard?"  This is the cherry on top of the cowgirl.  The burger served by the genius waitress.  The Empress card.

I sense that the novel of my dreams is in the Remington SL3--although it writes much faster than I can spell.  And no matter that my typing finger was pinched last week by a giant land crab.  This baby speaks electric Shakespeare at the slightest provocation and will rap out a page and a half if you just look at it hard.

"What are you looking for in a typewriter?" the salesman asked.

"Something more than words, " I replied.  "Crystals.  I want to send my reader armloads of crystals, some of which are the colors of orchids and peonies, some of which pick up radio signals from a secret city that is half Paris and half Coney Island."

He recommended the Remington SL3.

My old typewriter was named Olivetti.  I know an extraordinary juggler named Olivetti.  No relation.  There is, however, a similarity between juggling and composing on my typewriter.  The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like part of the act.

I have in my cupboard, under lock and key, the last bottle of Anais Nin (green label) to be smuggled out of Punta del Visionario before the revolution.  Tonight, I'll pull the cork.  I'll inject 10 cc. into a ripe lime, the way natives do.  I'll suck.  And begin--

If this typewriter can't do it, I'll swear it can't be done.

Media reviews

“Robbins’s comic philosophical musings reveal a flamboyant genius.—People