Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Rating:
Summary: Viva la vivid
Review: This is the most enjoyable of Robbins' books, next to Skinny Legs and All that is (how can you top a travelling band of inanimate objects!).

Switters and his adventures roll right along - good pace & hilarious tone. I found myself wanting to meet the main character; although, I suppose I'm a bit old for him!

It is so hard to find well written books these days that are FUN to read! Thank you Tom for continuing to provoke and entertain.

Rating:
Summary: Tom Robbins and his Doberman Pelican
Review: I had this dream the other night about Tom Robbins. In it, he was a book store owner and he had a pet pelican who had plumage similar in color to a Doberman Pinscher. What does that have to do with this book? Well a book has to be pretty good to affect me that way. Amazon wants me to limit my review to the book's content. That is like asking someone to describe the Grand Canyon in one word or less. Plot is more or less irrelevant. Most dialogue is more internal in nature, and trying to pigeonhole this book is like trying to hug a dust devil. The bottom line is that while I may not be able to adequately describe what the novel is "about," you should read it because, like most of his novels, it will change you in some subtly sublime way. And that is important.

Rating:
Summary: IDEAS
Review: I'm at page 132. I'm lovin' this book. Tom Robbins gives us ideas, not a cheap throwaway read. But the ideas are packed with fun and light-heartedness. So far this book seems to be about taboos, how we live by them and where they may come from. It gets me thinking. I occasionally need a dictionary, I occasionally look up other topics on the internet. I love that it makes me think. I loved Skinny Legs and All for the same reasons.

Rating:
Summary: Another Robbins Wonder!
Review: I eagerly awaited the publication of this book, and while it is not my favorite Robbins writing, I was delighted by reading the adventures of errand-boy extraordinaire Switters. From the Amazon to a convent in a Syrian oasis, Robbins once again creates some amazing characters and circumstances, while throwing in a dollop or two of wisdom, and, as always, presenting it all with a lot of humor. Robbins always speaks truth and his words are a pleasure to not only read, but savor. It took me longer to read this book than any other I've picked up recently, but this was intentional. I enjoyed the pace, the mysteries, the surprises...but most of all I enjoyed the words. Robbins has fun with language, and hence, so do we. Put me in the Switters fan club, for I too love those fierce invalids home from hot climates.

Rating:
Summary: Firece Invalid Triggers Vatican Release?
Review: Imagine my sense of unreality when I turned on the morning news just in time to hear the anchorman say that the Vatican had released the long held secret of the Third Prophecy of Fatima. I thought Tom had made it up! Is it too much to say that this book has influenced the course of history? Well maybe... but the story of Switters has caused outbeaks of giggles, guffaws and smiles for me while reading it. Thank you Tom! I get such a buzz from you.

Rating:
Summary: Tom skewers another reality (or two).
Review: Saw it. Bought it. Read it. Read it again.

Despite that fact that Tom Robbins (probably) doesn't work for the CIA, this novel is clearly his most autobiographical. But who cares. What Tom's audience wants, Tom's audience gets. The master of the metaphor returns with another twisted tail of twisted people written in Tom's own brand(tm) of bruised, battered, manipulated, twisted, and thoroughly enjoyable english.

We read because of how he writes, not because of what he writes about. What a ride.

Rating:
Summary: James Joyce - Eat Your Heart Out
Review: Tom Robbins is Mozart with metaphores. He's not interested in a mere play on words. He dances cheek to cheek with them. He buys them dinner and let's them order the lobster! I always suggest to friends who've never read Robbins, that they begin with "Another Roadside Attraction". "Fierce Invalids..." and "Still Life With Woodpecker", for me, are now in a close tie for second place. Robbins's latest outlook on the modern world, through the adventures of Switters, is a masterpiece of cynicism. A witches brew of twisted analogies. A shiny new dump truck overflowing with hilarious wit. I am inspired! If you're one of the few out there who still read... READ THIS!

Rating:
Summary: Send in the Clowns
Review: He hit it again. After stagerring with Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Tom is back on track. His attention to detail of each sentence is abundant throughout the book and you can see why it takes him so long between books. Fierce Invalids is defintely worth the wait. Also, Robbins has a superb ending to this book, something he has struggled with in previous novels.

The main character, Switters, delves below the normal 21 year old love interest that is standard in Robbins books and this time finds a love interest that is 16...and his step sister. He then falls for a 46 year old nun that is the world's only born again virgin with the skin to prove it. enough said. read the book

Rating:
Summary: Delightful read!
Review: A wacky look at the CIA. Who would have ever thought it was sex, drugs and rock and roll? this is a complicated plot that is really beside the point, the real story is Switters, a field agent searching for enlightment as he cris-crosses the world for the CIA. Always slightly High, a meteaphore nor pun is ever missed! I am still trying to figure out what this book is about? but I liked it! I also recomend "A Tourist in the Yucatan"

Rating:
Summary: A great and horrible book (it CAN be both, right Tom?)
Review: Tom Robbins' books fall into three categories for me:

I. Pure genius (incl. Roadside, Cowgirls, and Jitterbug)

II. Respectable flights of fancy (Skinny Legs)

III. Lukewarm efforts (Still Life, Frog Pajamas)

That's not to say that all in (I) are five-star champions and all in (III) are horrible one-star waste of times. I've never come across a viable reason to give anything Tom's written less than four-stars (on the Amazon.com scale). Fierce Invalids is no exception. It is a third-tier Robbins book, but that makes it better than 99% of the drek out there.

It's unique (not "most unique") in the Robbins' oeuvre for one simple reason: a male protagonist. Switters is the literary equivalent of a bipolar disorder: he hates organizations, yet is a member of both the CIA and a convent; he believes in laughter as the road to Nirvana, yet he carries a Beretta with him wherever he goes; he's world-wise and pragmatic, yet spends the last two third of the story confined to a wheelchair due to a shaman's curse. This theme of binary opposition runs rampant through the book, and it gives the reader something tangible to hang on to, something Robbins usually is hesitant to do.

Midway through the narrative, I realized that all that I enjoyed about the first half of the book has been destroyed, and I was wondering how Tom would pull it all together in the end (he always does). He does -- although slightly more melodramatic than usual, I was satisfied with the knots he made to tie up the loose ends.

As for his most unique (couldn't help myself here, Tom) ability to wield the swords of simile and metaphor, it has never been sharper. My favourite: "Looking at it from another angle, their kiss was like a paper airplane landing on the moon." It's like haiku, that line.

For the Tom-completist (of which I am a recent member), pick it up and bask in its glory, cause you may not hear a peep from the old man for another five years. For the Tom-newbie, go back to Roadside, and save this one for another day.