Rating: 
Summary: WOW
Review: On a recommendation, I picked up this book at the bookstore and am extremely happy that I did. Tom is now my new favorite author. Why is he so good, you ask? This guy spews a literary barage at you on every page. This book will definitely test your fluency of English while simultaneously entertaining the hell out of you! A must read.
Rating:
Summary: worth it in the end
Review: Unlike his others, say Jitterbug Perfume, this one doesn't grab you right away. It's more like a recipe where you don't quite understand why you're putting in things that don't seem to go together until you taste the finished product. The main character is a robbin's classic, perverted, extremely intelligent, romantic, and always fighting the rational world with genuine real joy. If you stick with it you'll come away with that unique tom robbin's warm fuzzy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates
Review: Why did I keep reading? Just FLAPDOODLE!
Rating:
Summary: Oh bliss!
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Robbins. . .
Review: Once upon a time, I regarded the publication of a Tom Robbins novel as cause for joyous celebration. Then, the temptation is to say that I "grew up" and Tom's books lost their picaresque charm for me. I continued to read them, but the thrill was gone - just so many words on a page, seemingly not going anywhere. Then, my son David's friend Robert (19 years old) started showing up at the house with Tom Robbins books, gushing with praise for this author he had just "discovered". Discussions with Robert rekindled the fires for me, and when I picked up "Fierce Invalids" after a five-year hiatus from Tom Robbins, lo and behold, the time was right and the magic was back! I'm not even going to try to determine if Mr. Robbins grew up or if I regressed. It just doesn't matter. What does matter is that "Fierce Invalids" is the quintessential Tom Robbins. There are those skeptics that say the plot doesn't go anywhere. In a manner of speaking, they could be right. The conclusion could be perceived as indecisive, but, if the reader paid any attention at all to the clues about the character of Switters, the protagonist, it couldn't have ended any other way. After all, that's Switters. In this book, as in any other Tom Robbins story, the joy is in the journey, not the destination. To attempt to describe the plot would be a disservice. There is the usual cast of misfits with character flaws getting into and out of zany situations. In this case, it's CIA cowboys and angels, South American shamans, excommunicated nuns, underage step-sisters, long lost relics and works of art (in this case, the third prophecy of Fatima and an original Matisse with a story), and Islamic terrorist wanna-bes. We spend time in Peru, Syria, Seattle, Sacramento, and the Vatican. We are teased with philosophical ramblings. All in all, it's the usual Tom Robbins romp. So what's the attraction?? (Another roadside attraction?) As I said earlier, the joy is in the journey. And, it is a linguistic journey. Reading a Tom Robbins book is like taking a shower in a sound studio. You just let stand and let the rhythm of the words cascade over you. Mr. Robbins uses words as though they were blunt instruments and wields metaphors as if they were violins. (By the way, I have no idea what that means, either. .) It's like eating popcorn. It tastes great while you're doing it, you can't get enough of it, and when it's gone, you're pleasantly sated but not bloated. It's not literature for the ages, but it's a good read for right now. Sailor Boy, one of the pivotal characters in the story said it best, "Peeple of the wurl, relax."
Rating:
Summary: Another tour d'force for Robbins!
Review: What is it about Tom Robbins's writing that draws us fans back over and over? Is it the never-ending string of similes and metaphors, the constantly outrageous and often offending picaresque adventures, or is it the social commentary that stings deeply into our consciousness? Needless to say, it is all three and more. As usual, when I discovered a new Robbins book, I got excited and could hardly wait to begin, and this new one is certainly no disappointment. With our new hero(anti-hero?), Switters, we move into a new domain of the absurd combined with the all too real. Switters says and often does what most people seldom dare. The fact that he is a CIA operative makes his viewpoint more seemingly dangerous for its possible verity. And what do a shaman's curse, a lusty nun, and the breakdown of worldwide ethics have in common? Well, that is what you will perhaps find out when you read the book, and even if you don't, you will be assaulted with enough laughs to last a while not to mention enough food for thought for a lifetime.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Recent Offering
Review: Robbins most recent offering is deceptive and ultimately disappointing. It's like the hardwood floor in my living room. It looks solid, level, polished. But as soon as I start across it, I notice the scratches and dips; I hear the squeaky creaks and ominous groans. Metaphors aside: 1) The book's plot wanders and stalls in a thoroughly nondelightful manner. The journey itself seems aimless and pointless, and no sub-plots provide relief. 2) The male characters are selfish and short-sighted and not very interesting really. Some protagonists you love to hate. Switters just bores me. And Robbins can't seem to deny him anything. 3) The female characters are bland and restricted. A babe buffet for middle-aged men. Result: Robbins' use of language (as fresh and agile as usual) is not enough to make me overlook the basically disappointing content of this book. (P.S. What is with the annoying repetition of the title phrase?)
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Summary: Who got angry reading this book?
Review: "He who laughs last didn't get the joke."-Anon Totally far fetched, absurd, funny, intelligent and offensive to many. CIA agent that worships nothing-but makes room for drugs, sex and rock and roll.
Rating: 
Summary: Either Tom's lost his touch, or I've grown up.
Review: I was a devoted Robbins fan beginning back in the late '70s but was unable to make it more than a fifth of the way through this book. I've got an undying nostalgic affection for Tom and his over-the-top writing style, but he seems to have become overly self-conscious and precious about it. Or it could be the fact that I'm 40 years old and stopped smoking pot years ago . . . I tried very hard to like this book, but found the characters unreachable and the prose ultimately unreadable.
Rating:
Summary: Moving on
Review: Over the years, starting as a college student in the 60s, and later, I eagerly awaited Tom Robbins' books as a kind of anthem for rebellion against the establishment. We discussed them for endless hours, fueled by all that was back then. So when I saw Fierce Invalids in a bookstore a few weeks ago-I decided to reconnect. Yes, the ability with the language is there, in fact his talent is brilliantly polished. What left me feeling flat was his use of the same tired old themes -casual sex as a gateway to spirituality, the notion that somehow some superior force would change the innate characteristics of human behavior, if we would just listen (which we don't), the presumption that any sort of organization is wrong (especially religion), and drinking and drugging as the glue, or perhaps the social imperative, that holds it together, that justifies whatever behavior is necessary. Robbins has polished these themes to a high gloss-but I felt that his Switters was perhaps really trying to conquer the virginity of his own inability to feel alive. He kept bouncing off this surface, back up into his own justification, and I wound up feeling sick of his diatribes.
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