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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Innoculation against all too vivid life....,
By
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This review is from: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (Hardcover)
I went to see a performance of "Stomp" - and I sat there with this silly grin on my face throughout the whole exciting, creative and heart thumping event. It's the same silly grin I had on my face while reading this novel - and for the same reasons. I love the way this man writes - he makes me fall in love with language and ideas all over again. I am rolling in the language the way a dog rolls in a particularly pungent patch in the woods - and I am loving every redolent moment. I suppose those who feel that Mr. Robbins' work contains unbelievable plots twists are looking for something a little too linear in this surreal world - but as for me, the whole process of living itself is pretty darn non-linear and full of unbelieveable plot twists. I am particularly fond of the diatrabes on religion and advertising. I love the thoughts regarding Mary and the possible reason why she never mentions Jesus ..... "Jitterbug Perfume" caused me to shift into a permanent suspension of disbelief, and I was thrilled to get this booster shot.
104 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an exotic orgy of literary genius,
By Vanessa (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (Hardcover)
No one else writes like Tom Robbins. But thank goodness he does. Not only does he tell a ripping good yarn, but the language he uses shows you that he obviously takes the time to chew and taste each sentence thoroughly. He is in love with words, and it shows on every page. He takes an ordinary scene and makes you see it in a completely new way. For instance, he describes a sunset as the sun dropping like a gold coin into a slot and ocean biting the coin to make sure it is really gold. And you can actually SEE it right along with him. It's so damned, as Switters calls South America, "VIVID." I've read every Tom Robbins book, except I'm not quite done with this one yet, but it promises to be just as wild and exhilerating of a ride as any of his best ones (which in my opinion are Jitterbug Perfume, Skinny Legs and All, and Still Life with Woodpecker). Tom Robbins tops my list of people I'd like to go drinking with. I highly recommend that everyone go out and read this, and every other one of his books.
80 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great and horrible book (it CAN be both, right Tom?),
This review is from: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (Hardcover)
Tom Robbins' books fall into three categories for me:I. Pure genius (incl. Roadside, Cowgirls, and Jitterbug) II. Respectable flights of fancy (Skinny Legs) III. Lukewarm efforts (Still Life, Frog Pajamas) That's not to say that all in (I) are five-star champions and all in (III) are horrible one-star waste of times. I've never come across a viable reason to give anything Tom's written less than four-stars (on the Amazon.com scale). Fierce Invalids is no exception. It is a third-tier Robbins book, but that makes it better than 99% of the drek out there. It's unique (not "most unique") in the Robbins' oeuvre for one simple reason: a male protagonist. Switters is the literary equivalent of a bipolar disorder: he hates organizations, yet is a member of both the CIA and a convent; he believes in laughter as the road to Nirvana, yet he carries a Beretta with him wherever he goes; he's world-wise and pragmatic, yet spends the last two third of the story confined to a wheelchair due to a shaman's curse. This theme of binary opposition runs rampant through the book, and it gives the reader something tangible to hang on to, something Robbins usually is hesitant to do. Midway through the narrative, I realized that all that I enjoyed about the first half of the book has been destroyed, and I was wondering how Tom would pull it all together in the end (he always does). He does -- although slightly more melodramatic than usual, I was satisfied with the knots he made to tie up the loose ends. As for his most unique (couldn't help myself here, Tom) ability to wield the swords of simile and metaphor, it has never been sharper. My favourite: "Looking at it from another angle, their kiss was like a paper airplane landing on the moon." It's like haiku, that line. For the Tom-completist (of which I am a recent member), pick it up and bask in its glory, cause you may not hear a peep from the old man for another five years. For the Tom-newbie, go back to Roadside, and save this one for another day.
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