Call number
Collection
Genres
Publication
Description
Fiction. Literature. Thriller. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:“As clever and witty a novel as anyone has written in a long time . . . Robbins takes readers on a wild, delightful ride. . . . A delight from beginning to end.”—Buffalo News Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy; a cyberwhiz who hates computers; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn’t merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. And as we dog Switters’s strangely elevated heels across four continents, in and out of love and danger, discovering in the process the “true” Third Secret of Fatima, we experience Tom Robbins—that fearless storyteller, spiritual renegade, and verbal break dancer—at the top of his game. On one level this is a fast-paced CIA adventure story with comic overtones; on another it’s a serious novel of ideas that brings the Big Picture into unexpected focus; but perhaps more than anything else, Fierce Invalids is a sexy celebration of language and life. Praise for Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates “Superb.”—New York Post “Dangerous? Wicked? Forbidden? You bet. . . . Pour yourself a bowl of chips and dig in.”—Daily News, New York “Robbins is a great writer . . . and definitely a provocative rascal.”—The Tennessean “Whoever said truth is stranger than fiction never read a Tom Robbins novel. . . Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals.”—San Diego Union-Tribune.… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
Not as fast paced and lacking some of his usual wit. I prefer his first 4 or 5 novels to this one...
Friends whose judgments I value even though our tastes vary like Robbins in general and this book in particular, and one nominated it for bookclub. Another whose taste overlaps with mine more liked it a lot; another couldn���t get into it; another was struggling with it. I read, interrupting Wallace to do so, and was ready to abandon it when I suspected Parrot Abuse in addition to Parrot Mortality (but it was only Parrot Mortality, brief and off-screen), but I read on.
But all I could see is Not Wallace. Robbins tries too hard in his word play, stretching out a metaphor into a paragraph-length digression, whereas Wallace, who might have put forth the same or more effort, has better results and doesn���t let you see him sweat. Robbins���s protagonist, Switters, cares about word use and etymology (like IJ's Avril Incandenza), and he corrects someone for saying ���very unique,��� but less than a page later, in narration, Robbins says ���more perfect.��� An author isn���t necessarily his character, but with Switters so very much like Robbins in verbiage and with the ���misuse��� of perfect so closely following the quibble about ���unique,��� Robbins looks sloppy.
Infinite Jest has wheelchairs, so does this; Infinite Jest plays on Hamlet (on more levels than title alone), and Robbins���s ���slings and eros��� was my final straw.
But I finished it.
It is kind if hard to appreciate a protagonist who is a pedophile and who engages in anal sex with a nun.
Robbins uses wonderful flowery, flowing language, however he bleeds this over into his characters speech. Although American's can be sarcastic they are not droll and have the dry humour of the British however Switters, the CIA agent, seems to take on decidedly MI5 characteristics. Perhaps Robbins should leave the spy telling to the author that does it best, John Le Carre.
Don't get me wrong I loved the language and I have no scruples about reading about pedophilia and anal intercourse with a nun, I just don't want my hero, flawed as he maybe, the have these faults. It makes one just a little squeamish and unable to relax enough to really enjoy Robbins wonderful language.
It is kind if hard to appreciate a protagonist who is a pedophile and who engages in anal sex with a nun.
Robbins uses wonderful flowery, flowing language, however he bleeds this over into his characters speech. Although American's can be sarcastic they are not droll and have the dry humour of the British however Switters, the CIA agent, seems to take on decidedly MI5 characteristics. Perhaps Robbins should leave the spy telling to the author that does it best, John Le Carre.
Don't get me wrong I loved the language and I have no scruples about reading about pedophilia and anal intercourse with a nun, I just don't want my hero, flawed as he maybe, the have these faults. It makes one just a little squeamish and unable to relax enough to really enjoy Robbins wonderful language.
It is kind if hard to appreciate a protagonist who is a pedophile and who engages in anal sex with a nun.
Robbins uses wonderful flowery, flowing language, however he bleeds this over into his characters speech. Although American's can be sarcastic they are not droll and have the dry humour of the British however Switters, the CIA agent, seems to take on decidedly MI5 characteristics. Perhaps Robbins should leave the spy telling to the author that does it best, John Le Carre.
Don't get me wrong I loved the language and I have no scruples about reading about pedophilia and anal intercourse with a nun, I just don't want my hero, flawed as he maybe, the have these faults. It makes one just a little squeamish and unable to relax enough to really enjoy Robbins wonderful language.
Can you go wrong with a book in which the main character's claim to fame among his coworkers is knowing the word for female genitalia in over 70 languages?
Switters begins the story as a CIA field agent, until on a mission in
Returning in a wheelchair to his home in Seattle he resigns from the CIA and lives a miserable life of pity that he's confined to his wheelchair, even though he can jump up on the seat and dance...
Decided to investigate the curse some more, he goes out to travel the world again, eventually discovering he can use stilts, and even one inch stilts and almost walk normal again.