Eclectic mix of short writings underscores Tom Robbins' free spirit

In his latest book, Tom Robbins recounts an expedition to Africa near Mount Kilimanjaro in the early 1980s. Standing in a savanna at twilight, he burst out an exultant Tarzan yell that rang across the glades of the Selous and gave him a "Saturday-matinee primal chill." As an adventure seeker and author, Robbins is more a free spirit than tough guy, more Cervantes than Hemingway, and rarely will he resist the opportunity to counter all danger and dourness with playfulness and fun.

"Wild Ducks Flying Backward," Robbins' ninth book, collects his short writings dating back to the late 1960s. It includes travelogues, offbeat tributes, short fiction, poems, a film treatment, and the lyrics to a couple of country and western songs thrown in for good measure. A review of a 1967 concert by the Doors in Seattle captures not only the essence of the band but also Robbins' emerging writing style. It's fitting that Robbins would be drawn to a performer like Jim Morrison, as both share a Dionysian showman/shaman sensibility. A key difference between them is that Morrison's charisma created the illusion that his writing was better than it was, while Robbins' writing is the source from which his charisma flows.

The collection shows that Robbins' aesthetic and philosophy have not changed significantly over nearly 40 years; whether the style is fiction, journalism or poetry, the voice is consistent. The pieces also show a writer dedicated to growing, on a quest to evolve deliberately "toward a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being," as he writes in a 1991 essay titled "What Is the Meaning of Life?" that runs hardly more than 100 words.

"Wild Ducks Flying Backward" is a fan's book, and Robbins' following is among the most loyal and ecstatic in contemporary literature. Many of his fans read everything he writes, return to their favorite novels on a regular basis, and memorize their favorite prose passages. They lend his books to uninitiated friends, because a potential Robbins fan is easy to spot. Readers who harbor a secret desire to perform the Tarzan yell on the stage of wild Africa, or at least tag along for the ride, can find something to like in Robbins.

The publication of "Wild Ducks" also provides readers and critics a moment to reflect on Robbins' career. Like "Slow Learner," Thomas Pynchon's 1984 collection of short and early writing, "Wild Ducks Flying Backward" provides perspective on what Robbins has already written as well as what he has yet to write. Ken Kesey is remembered as the prime mover among counterculture novelists, yet his pen was mostly silent during the late 1960s and 1970s, the era when Robbins was turning out novels such as "Another Roadside Attraction" and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues."

Robbins has never enjoyed the critical reception given to other contemporary writers named Tom (Pynchon, Stoppard and Wolfe), and his work is often regarded lightly for its lack of seriousness. Writers as ebullient as Tom Robbins tend to make critics nervous. While noting that serious people take seriousness too seriously, in the essay "In Defiance of Gravity," Robbins advocates a concept he calls "crazy wisdom." Whether articulated or not, crazy wisdom has always been the guiding principle of Robbins' writing, and in his universe, it's hard to imagine wild ducks flying any other way.

Richard Melo of Portland is the author of "Jokerman 8."