Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

Tom Robbins has a philosophy about EVERYTHING.


This whole review can be summed up in... "WOW"

"Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates" follows a man through his many odd journeys (i.e. his "how did the author think of that?" journeys). The reader falls in love with "Switters" and is ever more intrigued by him as he goes from meeting a man with a pyramid head, to living in a convent with ex-communicated nuns- all the while imparting his "wisdom."

Here's some quotes:

"And so he came to recognize that there were two kinds of people: those who were curious about the world and those whose shallow attentions were pretty much limited to those things that pertained to their own personal well-being. He concluded further that Curiosity might have to be added to that list of traits- Humor, Imagination, Eroticism, Spirituality, Rebelliousness, and Aesthetics- that, according to his grandmother, separated full-fledged humans from the less evolved."

" 'But human beings have-'
'A need to belong somewhere, to believe in something? Yeah, Sister.. They seem to. It's virtually genetic. I'm on guard against it, and it still overtakes me. The concern is that we may annihilate ourselves before we can evolve, or mutate, beyond it;"

" 'Then fundamentalists are the same everywhere, are they not?'
'Yeah. Their desperate craving for simplicity sure can create complications. And their pitiful longing for certainty sure can make things unsteady.'"

"And yet, it was a game absolutely worth playing. For its own sake. For the wahoo that was in it. For the chance that it would enlarge one's soul."

" 'Humanity is generally offensive,' he told her happily. 'Life's an offensive proposition from beginning to end. Maybe those who can't tolerate offense ought to just go ahead and end it all, and maybe those who demand financial compensation for offense ought to have it ended for them."

"You've got a brain, too, and don't forget it. If you develop it, it'll be around to enrich your life long after your tits and ass have declared bankruptcy."


Okay those were just some... I dog-eared like 496 million pages. :)


Anyway, it was a very thought provoking book.. and still had a really interesting, funny, and gripping narrative story. I'm in love with Switters. Read this book.


Read it if:
No ifs about it- READ IT.

Don't read it if:
See above.

This is.. Perhaps.. my new favorite book. Why? Because I heart clever.