Synopses & Reviews
In Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates the wise, witty, always gutsy Tom Robbins brings onstage the most complex and compelling character he has ever created.
Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sobs up ham gravy; a cyberwiz who hates computers; a robust bon vivant who can be as squeamish as any fop; 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's nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. Robbins has said that throughout the writing of Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, he was guided by the advice of Julia Child: "Learn to handle hot things. Keep your knives sharp. Above all have a good time."
Perhaps that is why he has managed to write a provocative, rascally novel that takes no prisoners-and yet is upbeat, romantic, meaningful, adventurous, edifying, and fun.
Review
"In his seventh, and perhaps most complex novel to date, Robbins shines as brilliantly as he has in the past...superb current social commentary."
New York Post
About the Author
Tom Robbins has been called "a world-class storyteller" by Thomas Pynchon, "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 today" by Fernanda Pivano of Italy's Corriere della Sera. A Southerner by birth, Robbins has lived in and around Seattle since 1962.