Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates: A Novel
Jun 2003 · Bantam
4.7star
50 reviewsreport
Ebook
464
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About this ebook
A “deranged and delightful concoction” (Fortune) about a CIA agent with uniquely peculiar proclivities, from the New York Times bestselling author of Still Life with Woodpecker
“Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune
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.
“Clever, creative, and witty, Robbins tosses off impassioned observations like handfuls of flower petals.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune
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.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
50 reviews
A Google user
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March 24, 2011
Compared with the last six months I have been on a reading spree the last two weeks. In fact I have read two books. One of them in two days! The first was Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins. It is another absurdist fiction that mixes psychology philosophy, humor and intellectualism. The main character is a cia agent who loses his job, estranges his teenage temptress step sister and is cursed by a south American shaman to never set foot upon the earth upon pain of death. Following his depression he takes up with convent of Christian nuns in Syria, two of whom he copulates with then suffers their excommunication before negotiating with the Vatican to return an artifact and restore the nuns. The curse is poorly explained away when in extremis he sets foot on floor and suffers a shock resulting in a 10 day coma. It was a pleasant romp that challenges orthodox common wisdom. Nuff said.
A Google user
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May 13, 2010
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I liked nearly every part of it and have re-read it with enjoyment over and over. Switters is a CIA agent who considers himself a good-guy. He does a favor for his grandmother, aka, Maestra and takes her parrot in a pyramid cage down to a pyramid-headed guy. He meets an Englishman who has a curse on him and gets his own curse as payment for seeing the Universe.
Switters ends up in a wheelchair even though he's not disabled, tries to have an affair with wildly inappropriate women and helps with an age-old prophecy of Mary (yes, that Mary.)
I love this story and hope that anyone with an ounce of curiosity and an appreciation for life's absurdities tries this book out.
mtailgator
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December 18, 2015
Pleasure, Madness and Derring-do!! How to find love in a desert convent in 5 easy "ahem" steps. Robbins story overwhelms you like a tropical jungle fever and the only remedy is always a page away.
About the author
Tom Robbins has been called “a vital natural resource” by the Oregonian, “one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world” by the Financial Times of London, and “the most dangerous writer in the world” by Fernanda Pivano of Italy’s Corriere della Sera. His works include Jitterbug Perfume, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. A Southerner by birth, Tom Robbins lived in and around Seattle from 1962 until he passed away in 2025.
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