false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165721158m/8680.jpg 8680 18 The fierce invalid in Tom Robbins's seventh novel is a philosophical, hedonistic U.S. operative very loosely inspired by a friend of the author. "Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll are enormously popular in the CIA," claims Switters. "Not with <I>all</I> the agents in the field, but with the good ones, the brightest and the best." Switters isn't really an invalid, but during his first mission (to set free his ornery grandma's parrot, Sailor, in the Amazon jungle), he gets zapped by a spell cast by a "misshapen shaman" of the Kandakandero tribe named End of Time. The shaman is reminiscent of Carlos Castaneda's giggly guru, but his head is pyramid-shaped. In return for a mind-bending trip into cosmic truth--"the Hallways of Always"--Switters must not let his foot touch the earth, or he'll die.<p> Not that a little death threat can slow him down. Switters simply hops into a wheelchair and rolls off to further footloose adventures, occasionally switching to stilts. For a Robbins hero, to be just a bit high, not earthbound, facilitates enlightenment. He bops from Peru to Seattle, where he's beguiled by the Art Girls of the Pike Place Market and his 16-year-old stepsister, and then off to Syria, where he falls in with a pack of renegade nuns bearing names like Mustang Sally and Domino Thirry. Will Switters see Domino tumble and solve the mystery of the Virgin Mary? Can the nuns convince the Pope to favor birth control--to "zonk the zygotic zillions and mitigate the multitudinous milt" and "wrest free from a woman's shoulders the boa of spermatozoa?" Can the author ever resist a shameless pun or a mutant metaphor?<p> The tangly plot is almost beside the point. Switters is a colorful undercover agent, and a Robbins novel is really a colorful undercover essay celebrating sex and innocence, drugs and a firm wariness of anything that tries to rewire the mind, and Broadway tunes, especially "Send in the Clowns." Some readers will be intensely offended by Switters's yen for youth and idiosyncratic views on vice. But fans will feel that extremism in the pursuit of serious fun is virtue incarnate. <I>Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates</I> is classic Tom Robbins: all smiles, similes, and subversion. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 1117682 2000 Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates total:6557|5:2178|4:2250|3:1557|2:453|1:119| 6557 25586 7915 536 5 3 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Thu Feb 14 16:44:47 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 14 17:16:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sun Aug 05 17:08:12 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 05:00:50 -0700 2007
First off, Switters is the greatest single character to emerge from modern literature pure and simple. Not only is he hilarious and a great role model for any law enforcement employee, but his personal philosophies (not disco...more...]]> 1 5 false false Tue May 15 12:04:28 -0700 2007 Fri May 25 08:00:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Apr 15 05:17:16 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 05:32:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 24 19:30:46 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 19:53:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 11:26:46 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 11:26:32 -0800 2009 Switters is my hero. An absurd and rollicking good time. If you enjoy philosophy, drugs, booze, sex and laughing...you should be into this.]]> 5 1 false false Tue Dec 30 10:54:41 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 11:00:39 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Nov 20 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Wed Aug 12 13:25:44 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 13:29:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 07:57:25 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 08:05:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 07 19:33:35 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 09:55:05 -0700 2007 wild ducks flying backward- saving that for a rainy day), but i have to count myself among the many who consider this a favorite of the bunch. well written, fast, and full of shamanic/monastic greatness. i would even say a tour de f...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 09:48:18 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 14:06:17 -0700 2009 Infinite Jest in mind because almost any other book will suffer. Add to that my 24-year-old bias about Tom Robbins, whom I had never attempted but had shelved plenty as a library page before my first boyfriend dismissed his best friend’s favorite author as “pse...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 10:42:16 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 09:57:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Thu Jan 01 21:11:31 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 21:28:01 -0800 2009
Two years later I was walking into a Borders and saw this book on display. I had never he...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 20:46:03 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 00:25:45 -0700 2009
...which was a little bit absen...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 08 12:21:52 -0800 2008 Wed Apr 23 16:38:45 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 18 05:19:33 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 05:20:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false true Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Apr 07 18:57:49 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 19:09:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 03:29:09 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 10:25:15 -0700 2009 an overrated, terrible pile of crap, I need a break from my search for a decent fantasy novel. Tom Robbins offers me that respite, where I don't have to sacrifice entertainment value along with my preferred genre.

Tom Robbins is a master of prose. Of th...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Sep 03 17:25:02 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 23 12:41:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 19:50:20 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 20:17:09 -0700 2008 Switters is asked by his grandmother to release his grandmother's bird into the Amazon, where ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=8680