tom robbins: fierce invalids home from hot climates

Reading the Fierce Invalids, i realize that all i have written so far is crap. Or crèpe: It s flat. You could wrap something in it and eat it! Robbins showed me that it is possible to write a book so hilarious that reading it, you are continuosly smiling, often laughing out loud and sometimes have the urge to jump to your feet an clap your hands; but which is at the same time so clever that reading it, you become philosophic. And he showed me, how to use semicolons.

Robbins just loves to play with sentences, making them as witty and for not-native-english-speakers as diffucult as possible. One example, for sure not the best one, but the one i can come up with right now, is this: Switters, the hero, is about to make an important decision and he asks a friend to give him a glass of wine, to make the decision process easier. But instead of just asking "Could I please have a glass of red wine, to help me thinking" he pleads "Do you suppose I might lubricate my cognitive apparatus with some squeezings from your swell vine-yard?"

Another thing i love about this book is Robbins unmatched way of uncramping romantic or kitschy situations without making them ugly. My example (again for sure not the best one but blabla, you know): Robbins describes a beautiful evening in a small Syrian oasis. He writes about the animals preparing for their night s rest and the hot air cooling. And right at the moment, when in front of your inner eye the romantic arabic sickle moon rises and you start to smell the heat of the day vanish, he writes about little chickens on their way home to the stable to watch some chicken MTV. (What the hell is MTV doing in your misty-eyed dream of 1001 night?)

If you now think that all that isn t really funny that may be due to several reasons (your atrophied sense of humor; my inapt way of choosing examples; ) but there is only one cure: Risk the journey and read the whole book!

To give you a start, i give you the start: "A naked parrot ..."

That should be enough!

No? Ok, as soon as my book-store will hand me my own copy of this marvellous book, i will quote one of my favourite parts of the book. It s about depression. (Here it is)

I want to express my gratitude to the composed invalid home from cold climates: I Love You!

polilla may5