Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government, a pacifist who carries a gun, a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy. Yet there is nothing limp about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. As we follow Switters across four continents Robbins explores, challenges and celebrates virtually every major aspect of our mercurial era.
As many readers well know, to describe a Tom Robbins plot does not begin to describe a Tom Robbins novel. The internationally acclaimed best-selling author is as opposed to story summations as J.D.Salinger, but it is revealing perhaps to learn what he claims to have influenced his writing of Fierce Invalids:
'This book was inspired by an entry from Bruce Chatwin's journal, by a CIA agent met in Southeast Asia, by the mystery surrounding the lost prophecy of the Virgin of Fatima, by the increasing evidence that the interplay of opposites is the engine that runs the universe, and by embroidered memories of old Terry and the Pirates comic books.'
- ISBN10 1842430130
- ISBN13 9781842430132
- Publish Date 5 March 2001
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 7 July 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oldcastle Books Ltd
- Imprint No Exit Press
- Format Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
- Pages 416
- Language English