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Summary: Essential reading for any Robbins fan.
Review: I had an impossible time putting this book down. A relatively easy read, full of thought provoking, beautific Robbinisms.
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Summary: People of Ze World
Review: After a long wait; wondering if the author was dead or alive, he has come back with a vengeance! Switters is endearing, vulnerable and what hipsters believe everyman to be! Sure, the book could have been all brought together in a nice little climactic bundle--but I guess this is just his way of letting all of us know that as we take it all in, we should relax!
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Summary: poor man's vonnegut?
Review: oh i think so. on robbins-scale i give it a four, but it lacked everything i find interesting in any other book by any one else with any real kind of talent. this is terrible. it's so meaningless, it's drivel.
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Summary: Minor Flaws Don't Stop This From Being A Classic
Review: I read the other reviews with some interest, as I was also dissatisfied with the ending. There was a perfect spot to end the book about 50 pages short of where it ended, and it would have been more impactful, and lend itself to a sequel (which is still possible.) However, I thought this was his best novel to date. The theme was repeated through both the plot and the narrative. It's a philisophical treatise that's both well crafted and entertaining. People who are slaves to plot lines might get frustrated, but the point of the book is made over and over again, with humor and panache. I'm reminded of Zorba the Greek: "To die is no trouble, but to live is to unbuckle your belt and look for trouble." In this case Robbins isn't looking for trouble, he's just not taking everything so seriously, and he's trying to tell us all to lighten up.
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Summary: Chasing purity
Review: "...no matter how valid, how vital, one's belief system might be, one undermines that system and ultimately negates it when one gets rigid and dogmatic in one's adherence to it... joy itself is a form of wisdom. Beyond that is the suggestion that if people are nimble enough to move freely between different perceptions of reality and if they maintain a relaxed, playful attitude well-seasoned with laughter, then they would live in harmony with the universe; they would connect with all matter, organic and inorganic, at its purest, most basic level." p.389Robbins was not at his best in this work. The research was shoddy and slapped together. The message, if there really was one, was likewise woefully underdeveloped. It's hard to criticize the only author whose every published word I've read and enjoyed... but unfortunately, Robbins let this one get away from him. On the upside, I commend Robbins for his enthusiasm to Red Eye gravy and Finnegan's Wake. Two forms of diversion that I've reacquainted myself with on his account. My takeaway from this work is the notion of purity. The novel desperately tried to be about purity but never managed to do so. The main character Switters is the ultimate pursuer of purity, he chases 16-year old Suzy, he plays rugby for the sport of it (though his position was never revealed), and he lives life as an operative's operative, a CIA angel. Robbins dumps truckloads of purity on the reader. He pipes wisdom from the aging mouth of a grandmother, prophesizes warnings from the Virgin Mary, visualizes the world through the eyes of a remote South American tribe of natives, and encounters adventure amongst an especially pure sect of Catholic nuns. How much purity do you want? And still, the message isn't clear, the point doesn't slam home. Fierce Invalids is creative and entertaining, but lacks a message... Tom Robbins is capable of quite a bit more.
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Summary: Wheres the ending Tom?
Review: I read through 400 pages of mis(and over)used metaphors, tons of plot inconsistencies -- but I continued to read.. only to be cut off suddenly, and have the book come to an end in pretty much 4 unattractive seemingly unfinished pages. Whats the deal Tom? You can go on for 30 pages on Finnegans Wake but you cant go into any kind of detail with the ending? Definitely 5 star material if you added another 200-300 pages. By the way, this was my first encounter with your "unique" style of writing.
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Summary: Danger to Commuting
Review: I am listening to this book while commuting 2 hours each way to and from Seattle to work. I alternately nearly drive off the road laughing, then nearly throw the tapes out the window with disgust. Reminiscent of the old style of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas." I find Switters beguiling but tire of Robbins' endless ramblings and detours into absurdity. Being a nurse, I found the bumper sticker Switters has on his wheelchair so true.."don't talk about Jesus or Diseases." Wish me luck, I have 3 more tape to go and hope they do not cause me an accident on I-5.
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Summary: It is a journey of discovery...
Review: ...What is the deal with the cover? How do those first chapters fit in? What does it all mean? Unless one has read a Tom Robbins novel, one cannot understand the joy that accompanies the discovery of a new one. As luck would have it, Fierce Invalids was my first, and what a way to loose one's innocence! It is the capsaicin heat of a scotch bonnet worn at a rakish angle...it is the liquid velvet of three-quarter-melted ice cream on the tongue... But enough. Read the book. Hate it, or love it. Just don't find it neutral.
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Summary: My, what cute writing you do, Mr. Robbins!
Review: The cute writing style the author chooses to employ finally exceeded my tolerance, at about page 130, and I had to put the book aside. No doubt Mr. Robbins has all the tools to be a successful writer. His characters and plot were certainly adequate. But his infatuation with what he apparently perceives as his command of the language simply gets in the way after awhile. And by the way, "flaunt" is not a synonym for "flout" (p. 132).
Rating: 
Summary: Not a book to buy
Review: I feel I must say that I have purchased ALL this author's other works. However... The main character in this book possesses un-redeemable virtue when we learn, in the first 50 pages, that he lusted after his step-sister when she was 12 years old and he was 31. He keeps her training bra...she is now 16. He engages in sexual acts with her, including an under the table fondling at a family gathering. This is repulsive and inappropriate, and is not a passing fancy for the character, but is returned to again and again. If you want to read about child sexual-abuse, which this is, then try it. I'm just glad I borrowed my copy, and didn't pay for it. As a trained counsellor, I have told others to avoid and not purchase this book. I predict a short life on the lists, especially with women readers.
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