Still Life with Woodpecker is imaginative and unconventional. It reads like a stream of consciousness peppered with seemingly trite but actually profound metaphors, and it’s filled with ridiculous yet insightful characters. Half the time I loved it, half the time I found it laborious. Still, though I like my stories to keep me entranced the whole way through, any tediousness while reading Woodpecker was forgiven by the philosophical and observational gems hidden in Robbins’ free-flowing jungle of words.

All in all, if you’re looking for strictly a fast-paced, interesting plot, then perhaps you should skip this one. But if you can appreciate philosophical musings and insightful observations on the human condition, even without a very strong driving story behind them, I think you might enjoy this book.

Side note: There is a plot hidden within these pages. The protagonist, a princess, Leigh-Cheri. Her love interest, an outlaw, Bernard aka The Woodpecker. Dynamite and pregnancies and kingdoms and parents and chaperones and frogs. The role of the moon and redheads in this world and, of course, love. Also, don’t try and smuggle a frog to Hawaii. It won’t end well.