Love and Other Pranks

by Tony Vigorito

"May be the single wildest novel I've ever read. It rings the cosmic gong on so many levels, turns so many stereotypes inside out, one scarcely knows what to do but hold on and enjoy the ride. And enjoy it I did." —TOM ROBBINS

Acclaimed for his surreal, satirical vision and his “consistently dazzling” (Kirkus Reviews) writing style, cult favorite Tony Vigorito stretches the boundaries of storytelling beyond all limits with his long-awaited third novel. A quest to find the treasure of all treasures launches this swashbuckling tale of romance and high adventure across three centuries and takes you on a hilarious and visionary journey that includes lovers, pirates, bank robbers, treasure maps, yoga cults, love potions, assassins, con artists, quicksand, smugglers, and rock-paper-scissors. Welcome to the “incomparable imagination” (Minneapolis Books Examiner) of a Tony Vigorito novel. And beware the meadow of marvels...

"A masterful story..." —Seattle Book Review

"Opening with a satire of the Adam and Eve story, this book moves seamlessly back and forth between eighteenth century Caribbean pirates with a treasure map and twenty-first century San Franciscans contending with a false New Age prophet. The author controls these seemingly disparate scenarios with humor and panache, creating such memorable characters as a guardian parrot, a bumbling true believer, and a herd of cowbell-wearing bison somehow relocated to a tropical island. This is a deeply original and satisfying book." —BookLife

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Humor

Unknown Binding

First published February 14, 2017

About the author

Tony Vigorito is the author of the award-winning and critically-acclaimed underground hits, Love and Other Pranks, Nine Kinds of Naked, and Just a Couple of Days. Visit TonyVigorito.com to read his numerous essays as well as extended samples from all of his books.

You may also follow him via facebook and instagram.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn it! This is another of Tony Vigorito's books that I will be buying multiple copies of. I have already purchased two (plus the audio), and ordered two more, (one for each sister). "Just a Couple of Days" has been in my "top 5 books ever" list since it came out, and this new one will be residing on that list right next to it. I have been waiting ten years for this book, and it was worth it. (Mr. Vigorito, please don't make us wait ten more years for your next one).

I will be writing a review shortly, when I have some time, I just wanted to start with a gushing thank you to Tony Vigorito for hitting the mark again!

Here is the slightly longer review as promised.

Love and Other Pranks is a fun kind-of surrealist romp through two time lines that are intertwined.
The prose is musical and lithe, and the story is deep and touching and hysterically funny.

The story contains-
Merlin, possessed by an imp since the age of eight,
Lila, "I sometimes hear music boxes in my head."
Ivan, the ascended master and guru for the Holy Company of Beautiful People,
Chris Bliss, an idiot,
Flaming Jane, formerly an educated Irish woman, now a pirate,
Crow, formerly a slave, then an Arawak tribesman, now a pirate,
Goldtooth, formerly an admiral, now a pirate,
Moby, a scarlet macaw,
A devil,
An angel,
A talking snake,
A lost island,
Pirate battles,
An epic game of rock paper scissors,
A halloween parade,
A bank robbery,
Revenge,
A sea monster,
and, love.

If that list of characters, settings, and events don't make you run out and buy this book, then here are a couple of lines of dialogue without context, to make you wonder...

"And though life is little more than a dramatic loop through a garden of nothingness, my only point is to remind you to remember."
"Remember what?"
"That nothing matters, it matters very much indeed."

Like Tony Vigorito's other two books, this one is addictive. You will want others to read it as well, and you will not forget it, ever.

[Danger]

So rich was this novel in character, language, action, and ideas, that I'm honestly shocked by how few people have logged it on this site. I rarely feel this level of elation upon finishing a book. This was something special.

[J. d'Merricksson · Rating 5 out of 5]

**This book was reviewed for the Seattle Book Review**


Vigorito’s Love and Other Pranks is a dazzling dreamwalk illustrating some of the grandest spiritual and philosophical notions out there. It is an admonition to 'wake up!’ and realise the illusions that cloud our minds daily, keeping us head-down, unable to enjoy the true fullness of life.


We follow two parallel timelines, where similar events play out in context to the culture and society of the era. In one, Merlin and Lila live in our modern world of fast cars, cellphones, and rampant consumerism. They meet at an illegal Halloween parade in San Francisco, and immediately fall for one another. On the flipside are Crow and Flaming Jane, living during the great Age of Sail when pirates and privateers prowled the seas.


For Lila and Merlin, they must contend with Ivan and his Holy Company of Beautiful People, which just, holy dang! It’s a terrifying glimpse into cult mentality and how the spiritual emptiness of today's society can make things so attractive. For Crow and Jane, they must contend with Goldtooth, formerly known as Admiral Jasper, who lost his ship to the wife he had kidnapped. This defiance put Goldtooth on a path of vengeance that cost many lives.


These are the same souls, all. It is left to the reader to consider- are these past lives, or are they played out concurrent? The Möbius threads through the entire story. More than an ouroboros, the Möbius strip illustrates not just cycles, but that things that may seem separate and two-sided really only have one side. This leads me to believe the two timelines are happening concurrent with one another.


I really enjoyed this book! I found the writing to be quirky and witty, especially the play with sentence structure and word usage. If done right, you get a masterful story. If done poorly, you get an amateurish script that leaves you questioning if the author knows how to write at all. This story is done right! There is so much going on in this book that it would take another read-through to fully appreciate.


Love and Other Pranks is a philosophical and psychological commentary on society. The beliefs presented here -life is illusion, death is illusion, go with the flow, etc- are ones that resonate deeply with me. It is an encouragement to think for yourself, to not let others define who you are, for that is a terrible trap. It's a commentary that these deeper truths can be learned, and valued, but also abused, as they were in Ivan’s hands, and, while we should be open to these truths, we need to be hella careful to not get rooked and abused by a cult leader.


Deeper spiritual meanings are woven in. Both stories are shot through with alchemic symbolism. Crow and Jane's story goes a step further, with them seeking out the fabled Philosopher's Stone. They learn, of course, that the puffer’s magic is just illusion and the truth of the Philosopher's Stone is something far greater. Even mystery schools are touched on, with Crow being inducted into the Eleusinian cohort through a trip through the ‘underworld’. The Eleusinians as a whole seem to have the best grasp on the deeper truths and mysteries of life. There's so much more to explore (bird symbolism for one. I'm looking at you Moby!), I could write an entire paper on this book!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my expectations were set too high based on the Tom Robbins blurb...... I thought it started out as fun and clever, but the two contemporary characters were nauseatingly philosophical. It was as if they couldn't just have a "normal"[sorry, I hate that word] conversation. I enjoyed the story about the pirates much more....but by the time I got to the last 40 pages, I really just didn't care and was anxious for it to end. I would like to say that the hardback version I have is gorgeous, and really well constructed. If you are a book person, this would stand out to you. The publishers did a phenomenal job.

[Colin Skow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like The Princess Bride, Love and Other Pranks is comprised of humor, fantasy, adventure, and love, with memorable characters galore, but has a more sophisticated twinge to the writing style. It oozes with sensibilities in the realm of ecstasy and tears you from your world in the same way the most dynamic dreams do. If you are one who enjoys such stories and is willing to add to your vocabulary, do not pass this up. In the current state of things, all you need is Love and Other Pranks.

[Oli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Read

It starts off slow but once it gets going, it is a fun ride. Not a page turner but a good ride.

[La Fay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I don't I there's anything I could say that would really describe it. Just read it.

Möbius!

[Palmer Eldritch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Tom Robbins wannabe who mostly fails. I was encouraged to try this by the positive comments from the actual Tom Robbins. But the banal dialog loaded with one liners made me give it up pretty quickly. It was clearly attempting humor and sometimes elicited a chuckle, but mostly fell far short. I am confident there’s an interesting story in this book. The plot was kind of going in an interesting direction. But I was not able to put up with the author’s apparent obsession with how clever he thought he was being to follow it through the journey.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sounded like my kind of book. Pirates! Satire! Reincarnation! Treasure! Romance!

And yet, no. I didn't like the characters, I didn't find it funny. I kept reading in the hopes it'd improve, but I finally have up on pg 134.

[Paul McBride · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was there a point to this book and I missed it?
This was endless nonsense deceptively posing as a book. It was really bad

[Reader Player One · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's this episode of South Park where the smug clouds of San Francisco reach Colorado and the San Franciscans are getting high on the smell of their own farts. That is this book.

"Love and Other Pranks" wants to hard to be clever that the only real characterization of anyone is this: there are the two main characters in each timeline (who might be the same or not - the author never really decides as far as I can tell. I stopped caring.) and they have what we'll call Baseline Clever. Then there's a snake and another random character who are seen as Otherwordly Clever (so much so that the male character gets annoyed) and then there's the other side characters, the antagonists, and so on who are portrayed as never nearly as clever. That's it. That's all the characterization.

No one grows and nothing is really discovered. There are no real stakes to anything. For instance, (Spoiler - but, who cares, it doesn't matter for the story whether this happens or not) Flaming Jane is strung up from a mast, having been captured, and she looks beaten. Once the guy rescues her in some derring-do moves she springs right back to life. So what I mean is: nothing ever really matters. It's all just action to move the plot forwards (feeble plot that it is). Characters have no real struggle or real internal exploration. There's just a lot of surface level aphorisms and riffing on the ills of the world and, oh, if only we could be as clever as the main characters.

And don't get me started on the endless 'No I love you more' parade. It's cute at first. But then... just... Well: it fills in the spaces where character development could be. It's a gag til it just makes me gag.

Now: I get it. I live around the Bay Area. Some people really are this high on themselves and their own fumes sometimes, navel gazing at their own cleverness. So I see where he's coming from.

I guess what it comes down to is that I am not the demographic for this book.

This book is for people who are not clever and who would like to either a. be perceived as clever or b. want to vicariously look in on someone else's cleverness and (bonus) have some sense that San Francisco (the backdrop to the present day half of the book) is some bastion of playful cleverness (spoiler: it's a fun city but it's just a city).

Bonus critique: if you are going to use two page run on sentences - learn to use punctuation. There's much grace and cadence to be found in dashes and parentheses and commas. One endless sentence with nary a punctuation point in sight maketh not an action sequence. It's just lazy writing.

As Tom Robbins said: this MAY be the funniest book I've ever read. But, also, it may not be. And, truthfully (at the very least), it's the latter.

Two stars because I am pretty sure there weren't any misspellings.
Two stars because surely I wouldn't spend $10 on a 1-star book.

[Alan Mauldin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a ride. This novel begins and ends* with a couple eating an apple.
In between there are pirates and battles on the sea, a loony cult of yoga practitioners, bank heists, a talking serpent, a drug/love potion that cures cancer and leaves the user with a minty clean colon, explosions and Flaming Jane (or is it Lila? -- Goo Goo G'joob).
Also, much philosophical musing that do not in any interfere with the story lines. Beatles references. Also, also, love.
And nectar.

* It doesn't literally end with eating the eating of an apple; it's at the climax a few pages from the finish line. But those acts, separated by a few hundred pages, provide much of the glue for what comes in between.
Speaking of devouring, I quickly downed this delicious novel in a day and a half. In my opinion, it's easily Tony Vigorito's best and probably the wildest ride of a book since "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates."

[De Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely buy the book!!!

What an amazing romp!!

Love and Other Pranks - a most magical, spirited, and oh so perfect addition to the adventure of being in the Casa of a dear Cuban friend and his family as we rode out Hurricane Irma in Old Havana.

Tony Vigorito's book was a siren calling out from amongst the dominoes, coffee, rum, rice and beans, and so much laughter.

Reading a tale of Lovers, Pirates, and Lovers of Pirates, blocks from "El Morro" in a country whose patron saint is Ochun, the Goddess of Love -doesn't get more aligned than that! When the power went out, I feasted on his story by the dimming light of my cellphone while the winds outside were the limbs of Kali wanting to rip the skulls off the buildings.

Tony Vigorito follows in the footsteps of Tom Robbins, and those are big shoes to fill.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A romp, but a very tangled romp and best for people who like tangles more than romps. 3.5 stars

I came to this book because it seemed to combine several things that I absolutely love: pirates and great writing. Having recently finished Brian Doyle‘s The Plover, and Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume, and seeing that Tom Robbins had penned a book cover endorsement for this, I enthusiastically jumped in. Ultimately, however, I feel this lacks the natural beauty and poetry of The Plover, and the genius interconnectedness of Jitterbug Perfume, though there are attempts at all of that. And in the end, it was a tough to finish story that, at least for me, became as tangled as a delicate necklace tossed carelessly in a pocket. I could see what should be beautiful underneath those tangles, but the knots were ultimately pulled too tight to rescue it.

[Julia Astakhova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony is a word magician. Every sentence his characters produce is densely full of humor, the plot twists and turns on the fly - you just need to be ready to follow with the same speed while the whole story unfolds. I couldn't stop reading before I swallowed the whole novel - it's just an addictive thing - like a well-made TV-show when the end of one chapter doesn't leave other choice other than continue reading. The funny thing I could easily imagine such wild characters in real life here in SF Bay area. The topics discussed, self-irony, dreams and victories of the heroes are like a snapshots, avatars of the heroes of our times, victims of californication. An interesting read for sure. Anticipating looking into other Tony Vigorito's books!

[Mike Nettleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could choose a word to describe this book, it would be maelstrom. It is a swirling stew of romance, adventure, philosophy, comedy, and color. Stylistically, it reminds me greatly of the Baroque Cycle of Neal Stephenson.
Love and Other Pranks tells parallel stories, one populated by the intertwined souls of two free spirits in San Francisco combatting a nefarious cult-gathering con man and the other following two swashbuckling and romantically playful pirates who explorer each other while foiling the evil plans of a orthodontically-challenged villain.

We were so enchanted by this book that we've sought out several other works from this heretofore unknown (At least to us) author.

[Chuck Kechter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book!

One of my favorite authors is Tom Robbins (who recommended this book), and like Skinny Legs and All, Love and Other Pranks is an excellent representation of a storyline that encompasses the mundane and the sublime. the humorous and the profane. The intimate and the antisocial. The practical and the philosophical. And, it has a talking snake, pirates, "divine" intervention, false gurus, bank robbery, switch and bait con jobs, a message-in-a-bottle, "evil" henchmen, a parrot named Moby (Mobius) who helps the narrative along, and more...

I am a huge fan of this kind of storytelling! Highly recommended!

[Chuck Kechter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book!

One of my favorite authors is Tom Robbins (who recommended this book), and like Skinny Legs and All, Love and Other Pranks is an excellent representation of a storyline that encompasses the mundane and the sublime. the humorous and the profane. The intimate and the antisocial. The practical and the philosophical. And, it has a talking snake, pirates, "divine" intervention, false gurus, bank robbery, switch and bait con jobs, a message-in-a-bottle, "evil" henchmen, a parrot named Moby (Mobius) who helps the narrative along, and more...

I am a huge fan of this kind of storytelling! Highly recommended!

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept.

I must have missed the point of providing character backgrounds of people who were never named in the first place. And there were places where the words seemed to be just a conglomeration of words that didn't read well. I mean, the first time I came upon such a paragraph, I wondered if I was actually asleep - reading in a dream.

That said, it was entertaining. I liked seeing how characters of the past and present were aligned, how their personalities were the same in both eras.

[Paris Lovette · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me two tries to read this and the first time, I couldn’t get passed the first 5 pages. My friend all but threatened me and I finally picked it up again and I’m glad I did!

There is a chapter dedicated to 4 pirate characters that live in the background and it was one of the most beautiful 6 pages I’ve ever read.

This is a well written book and will take you on a crazy parallel adventure. Highly recommended!

[Tim Mocarski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of three

I bought all three of Vigorito’s novel on the recommendation of one of my favorite writers. The first two I slogged through. This one is his most recent and clearly his best. The first two were okay, but too filled with character dialogue that explained too much philosophy of life that I didn’t understand nor cared to understand. In the third, I cared what they thought. More importantly I cared what happened to them.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is two stories that are loosely connected. I guess it's kind of similar in that respect to his other book, Nine Kinds of Naked. Overall it was good and the Princess Bride joke/Easter egg on page 104 near the end of chapter 29 cracked me up. Also, lots of Beatles references.

[Ted Moreland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my new favorite book from the last 5-7 years. Such a wild imagination and clever story. His use of words and creativity reminds me of Tom Robbins, but more manageable as a reader. The 2 stories from the book mirror each other and raise many questions about time and reality. Such a fun read.

[Ryan Sweat · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book! Such a fun read, part absurdist fiction with a romantic streak, a snarky humor a mile wide. I love his wordplay, and sometimes find myself rereading sentences purely for the enjoyment of the way the words tickle my brain. Pirates, deviants, and narcissistic exposure, what more could I want?

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for the most part. Mostly solid. Just not a particularly solid resolution. A bit too much dreamy insubstantial magic in the second half.

3/5 (not a waste of time, a reasonable plot and good amount of action, but not likely to recommend or read again. Would rate it 3.5+ if I could. Just not worth the 4.

[J. Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story from a great wordsmith. Some of the sentences are worth the price of admission alone, and the two storylines (removed by hundreds of years yet connected) just adds to the fun. Vigorito has become, with his three novels, one of my favorite contemporary authors. Recommended.

[Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE. I am such a big fan of Tony Vigorito's writing and wild adventures. This book is fun, introspective and relevant. A love story(s?) of epic proportions which guided/expand us through many worlds and reflections. Be prepared to ponder your life and love. Just where are we headed?

[Mike Heenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

More pearls of wisdom than you can count.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inventive, funny, and brilliant. Both social commentary and satire. The use of language is delightful and echoes Tom Robbins.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! The pace is just right and the story- addictive and excellent. Best work of fiction I've read in a while.