Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

"Too damned vivid!" is Switters' repeated phrase through the whole book.

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 South America he and a British traveller meet a shaman who might be real. The shaman curses both of them, but neither really believes it, till the British guy talks Switters into a test of his, and when the British fellow dies instantly, Switters then believes the power of the shaman's curse. Switters' curse is he'll die if ever his feet touch the ground again.

Returning in a wheelchair to his home in Seattle he resigns from the CIA and lives a show more 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. show less

A lovely interlude from reality. How could one explain the plot of this little tome -- a CIA agent goes to South America to release his grandmother's aging parrot back into the wild but ends up getting a spell cast on him by a pyramid-headed shaman that forbids him for setting foot on ground, thus confining him to a wheelchair and later stilts provided by former nuns cloistered in Syria with names such as Masked Beauty, ZuZu and Bob. Only Tom Robbins would come up with this stuff. A nice take on religion too. Not my favorite Robbins, but close to the top.

"People of ze wurl, relax!"
"No matter how valid, how vital, one's belief system might be, one undermines that system and ultimately negates it when one gets rigid and dogmatic in one's adherence to it."

Thus is captured two vivid aspects of Robbins' 2000 novel... a fun read that might just catch you chuckling at the antics of the central character, Switters.
To whit... you might not know what you think you know...and you just need to take things a bit easier.
From Seattle to the Amazon to the Middle East, Robbins has crafted yet another very amusing tale... or a tale of tales... meta-tale?

I first picked up a Robbins novel in 1986 after having moved to the Boston MA area for my first job out of college. Jitterbug Perfume enveloped me show more over just a few days, followed at a rapid clip by three other novels. Forward to 2014 and I'm playing catch-up... wish I'd read this several years ago. Looking forward to Frog Pajamas.

Highly recommended... brush up on your language skills, metaphysics, and world religious views... hang on tight... and Relax! show less

I'm sure Mr. Robbins believes this novel is brilliant. In quieter moments, while staring into the bathroom mirror, I'm sure he must consider his allusions to Nabokov and Joyce as evidence of his great company of writers. Here's the thing though, while reading this novel, admittedly my first by this author, I couldn't shake the sinking feeling that I was reading a lot of self-congratulatory crap from a man who thinks he is smarter than he actually is and who has such a dedicated base of readers that he doesn't even have to try... or edit. I can forgive a novel for being loquacious, wandering, unfortunately conceived, and self-absorbed. I loved My Struggle, after all. I can't forgive a book that is all of these things and yet has no ideas show more to offer.

This book is like adult contemporary music, clearly popular but not for me. show less

I'm sure Mr. Robbins believes this novel is brilliant. In quieter moments, while staring into the bathroom mirror, I'm sure he must consider his allusions to Nabokov and Joyce as evidence of his great company of writers. Here's the thing though, while reading this novel, admittedly my first by this author, I couldn't shake the sinking feeling that I was reading a lot of self-congratulatory crap from a man who thinks he is smarter than he actually is and who has such a dedicated base of readers that he doesn't even have to try... or edit. I can forgive a novel for being loquacious, wandering, unfortunately conceived, and self-absorbed. I loved My Struggle, after all. I can't forgive a book that is all of these things and yet has no ideas show more to offer.

This book is like adult contemporary music, clearly popular but not for me. show less

I love every one of Robbins' books - each for its own unique humor and zany take on reality. Though fantastic and improbable, his stories always ring true on a certain level - mostly because they are so wonderfully charming. He makes us want to meet his goofy characters and get drunk with them.

I really enjoyed listening to this novel. I think the reader was pretty special but, that notwithstanding, I loved the way Mr. Robbins played with words and made word pictures. I even liked the jackass-ishness of the main character. His storytelling style resonated with me I guess. I was a little disappointed with the ending though; I'm not sure what I would have liked and I wasn't expecting any particular event to finish the work but I was left a little high and dry.