Magazines » May/June 2009 Issue » Beer for a Different Bottle
Take sly wit and intelligence and steep them together in a mash tank of playful, intuitive storytelling. The resulting brew: the novels of Tom Robbins (e.g., “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” “Villa Incognito”). His main characters are often libidinous, his insights hallucinogenic. But now, the best-selling author has written his first children’s book. Not only that, it’s the first-ever children’s book about beer: “B Is for Beer” (Ecco) was released on April 21. DRAFT caught up with Robbins for the skinny on his new tome.
Why, of all things, a children’s book about beer?
It’s kind of a wild concept, but being introduced to not only the chemistry and history of the world’s most popular adult beverage, and also to beer’s underlying psychological, philosophical, and mythological dimensions, should afford kids a rare perspective on both adult behavior and the limitations of consensual reality. It’s also intended to entertain and amuse.
Is “B Is for Beer” really a book for adults disguised as a kid’s book?
I want to make it clear that this book is neither satire nor parody. It’s aimed directly at children, but it doesn’t talk down to them, and because it’s definitely more rowdy and more complex than, say, “Chucky the Curious Chipmunk,” I suspect its audience will be largely of legal age.
What made you want to take on such an unusual project?
In ’07, there was a cartoon in The New Yorker depicting a publishing executive saying to a scruffy, pint-nursing writer in a bar, “I doubt that a children’s book about beer would sell.” Other readers just smiled at the joke, but I’m afraid I took it as a challenge.
Did you enjoy any particular kind of beer while working on the book?
As I worked to somehow interface the magic of childhood with the alchemy of beer, my own long-held habits weren’t really affected. In winter I continued to imbibe stouts or dark ales, always local craft, on tap. In warmer weather I stuck with bottled lagers, frequently that classic from Jamaica, Red Stripe.
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This article originally appeared in the May/June 2009 Issue of DRAFT Magazine
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