Καλοκαίρι=παγωτά, μπάνια (όσα και αν είναι αυτά), συναυλίες, μπίρες (και κοκτέιλ όταν είμαστε λαρτζ) και Robbins. Και ΚΑΥΣΩΝΑΣ .

Συστατικά του βιβλίου: σάτιρα,ερωτισμός,ευαισθησία, ώρες-ώρες κυνισμός, μια ζούγκλα, ένας παπαγάλος, μια γιαγιά εξπέρ στους υπολογιστές και ο Switters, ένας απ' τους πιο ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες του Robbins. Και αναφορά στον Tenessee Williams.

Άνθρωποι όλου του κόθμου,χαλαρώθτε.

Fiercely Funny and Profound

In Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Tom Robbins once again expounds on the meaning of life, death, religion, politics, and humanity, but this time he also goes on about sub-atomic particles, pyramids, Matisse, the CIA, John Foster Dulles, the Amazon, Syria, Sacramento, Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Finnegan’s Wake, Broadway Show Tunes, parrots, anacondas, the relative value of wheelchairs and stilts, sexual experiences perverse or otherwise, the humanizing power of a good sense of humor, and... Our Lady of Fatima. Who else but Robbins could run an extended, mind-bending commentary on all of this while telling a very funny story? Her’s the plotline.

Erstwhile CIA agent Switters lusts after his 16-year-old stepsister, Suzy. Against his better judgment, Switters helps the young lady research and then write a very conventional term paper on Our Lady of Fatima and the three prophecies she was supposed to have made during her last appearance in 1917. But before the paper is finished, and after botching a carefully-planned tryst with Suzy, Switters heads off on another assignment taking with him his grandmother’s parrot named Sailor Boy and promising to set the bird free in the wild Amazon jungle.

While in the Amazon, Switters encounters a pyramid-headed shaman who believes that a sense of humor may be the talent most separating humans from the other animals. He thinks it may actually be the key to humanity’s salvation. But then the guy eats Sailor Boy and puts a curse on Switters saying that the CIA agent will die if his feet ever touch the ground again. Cleverly, Switters takes to a wheelchair and is so unencumbered that he agrees to another dangerous but humanitarian CIA mission. He manages the task swimmingly, but on his way home he stops at an oasis in the desert of Syria, and there falls in with a group of aging feminist nuns, who are outspoken advocates of birth control, and in possession – it turns out – of the 3rd never-revealed prophecy made by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. It’s all about the future of the world and of the church.

Eventually the nuns are excommunicated for their stand against overpopulation and soon openly encourage Switters into the bed of their youngest and horniest member, Sister Fannie. The next morning, for whatever reason, Fannie leaves the convent and heads out to tell selected authorities about the existence of the prophecy document, which the church believes it has destroyed. Just as Switters begins to fall in love with a sweet, older, but very sexy French nun name Domino Theory, the Vatican demands that the defrocked sisterhood turn over the document.

The abbess, who calls herself Masked Beauty, refuses to give in to the demands of the church. In her youth she posed nude for Matisse, and the resultant painting had hung for years in Switters’s grandmother’s living room; in fact Switters has lusted after it for most of his life, unaware that some day he would come face to face with the model who posed for it.

Switters and Domino help Masked Beauty negotiate an advantageous exchange of the third Fatima prediction for papal reinstatement of their order of nuns. Still, there’s trickery afoot, and when Switters enters a papal garden with Domino to deliver the document and decides that the woman he has fallen in love with is about to be shot, he stands, steps away from his wheelchair to save her, and in the process invokes the curse.

What happens next? Read FIHFHC to find out. It’s brilliant, insightful, and a whole lot of fun... for many reasons including the fact that Switters is an irreverent philosopher, a fighter, but also a lover. And as the author continuously reminds us, “Women simply love those fierce invalids home from hot climates.”

Top 5.
Switters is my hero. An absurd and rollicking good time. If you enjoy philosophy, drugs, booze, sex and laughing...you should be into this.

Very funny at times, marred by the protagonist, who’s an arsehole.

He’s a globe-hopping CIA courier who continually comes out with the sort of cod-philosophic proclamations that a fourteen-year-old boy might find deep. I really could have done without him perving over his barely pubescent stepsister all the time, too. I didn’t find it offensive, just… ugh.

Most of the protagonist’s flaws wouldn’t have been a problem for me if it weren’t for the fact the author clearly expected us to think he was a laid-back, cool dude. Again… maybe if you’re a fourteen-year-old boy.

Still, it did make me laugh a lot, so I can’t give it fewer than three stars, despite its flaws.

I was told to read this book by a friend who is absolutely nuts over this author. Tom Robbins is obviously a very smart man and has extremely creative stories.

He has massive vocabulary and I found myself looking up words throughout this novel. In the end I was extremely unsatisfied. Tom Robbins tends to ramble for pages upon pages within this book which is like trying to concentrate on listening to someone talking to you on acid.

It can be boring, long and will relate to absolutely nothing in the overall plot. I've read a few of his other novels so i could fairly judge his books in my own opinion,but I found it all the same.

Cut out half the rambling and I may have enjoyed it more. Robbins seems to be one of those authors that has caught on because people seem to find it "trendy" to have read.

I may be alone in thinking this, but I will probably never willingly read another of his again. Like I said before, he is smart, witty and extremely creative, but its not enough to make me want to ever read a book this long of his again.

The one thing I've ever really loved of his is a short essay called "Redheads". The key word here is SHORT. ;)

I liked it he is a good writer

Funny and provocative jab at religious moral constructs and navigating through a life filled with contradiction and happenstance. A lot of fun reading Tom Robbins. He keeps the reader engaged with lots of cultural references such as James Joyce, Pee Wee Herman and The Marlboro Man. That about covers it.

"It was on the road to Damascus (then already six thousand years old) that the apostle Paul (formerly Saul) suffered an epileptic seizure. Pounded to his knees by the relentless strobe of the sun, an egg-white mousse of spittle sudsing from his baked lips, Paul imagined he heard the big boom-boom voice of God (formerly Yahweh) admonishing him to scorn sensuality, snub women, and subdue nature, instructions that he subsequently incorporated into the foundation of the early Church (what came to be called "Christianity" was really Paulinism)".

Fantastically witty, hilarious, devilishly whacky storyline, and unmistakably 100 % Tom Robbins at his best.
don't want to elaborate about the story as that would spoil the fun. get it and read it. Immensely entertaining.
Many thanks to Larry for lending me his copy of this.

If you are looking for an enthralling read, well written and moving story, one of those books you pick up and don’t drop until you finish it - this is not the book for you. Or me.

I concur with the other reviews, the protagonist is full of himself, his pedo comments were very uncomfortable and intellectual ramblings made it difficult to keep reading resulting in starting and stopping constantly. Which is a shame as the author explores some interesting philosophical debates about politics, religion, women - which is overshadowed by the protagonists personality which was all over the place. Totally agree with ending being anti climatic.

There are moments I found myself thinking wow... the words were so beautifully written, almost like art. Then he would begin to ramble and what I read would lose meaning, then throw in big words to make it sound interesting, then another sentence which I had to re-read 3 times to understand what the hell he was trying to say. Everything becomes convoluted and just made it so difficult to read I would gloss over the words to move on from the section.

It felt like I was watching a 3 hour movie with too many Scenes which went on way too long and could have done a better job editing.

This is my first Tom Robbins book however I’ve been recommended to read jitterbug which is meant to be amazing. Don’t get me wrong - Life is too short for bad books - save yourself the time and disappointment. Every author has the crown jewel, I think jitterbug is the one I should have started as the first book to read.

"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 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.

Με λύπη (και λίγη νοσταλγία) συνειδητοποιώ ότι τα καλύτερα του αγαπημένου Τομ τα έχω ήδη διαβάσει. Και πάλι βέβαια ένα βιβλίο του Ρόμπινς αποτελεί μια ανάσα δροσιάς στον καύσωνα, το καλύτερο αντικαταθλιπτικό. Και μπορώ πάντα να ξαναδιαβάσω το Χορό των Επτά Πέπλων.

It's the 2nd worst book I've ever read all the way through. If I were a violent person, I would punch Tom Robbins in the face.