This is an "interesting" read ... it was a book club selection or I don't think I would have chosen it for myself. He has some very interesting, strong female characters, but his writing is NOT for everyone. I haven't read anything else by Robbins, but I wouldn't rule him out. ( )

Cia, Amazon shaman, Matise, Seattle, 3rd prophecy of Fatima

After years of slogging through this, I finally finished it! The reason I kept up with it is because I LOVE the words that Tom Robbins writes. His descriptions are like icing on a cake. The story, however, was kind of like riding a soap bubble down a drain--exhilarating, but not that fulfilling. ( )

"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. ( )

I'm sure Mr. Robbins believes this novel is brilliant. In quieter moments, while staring into the bathroom mirror, I'm sure he must consider his allusions to Nabokov and Joyce as evidence of his great company of writers. Here's the thing though, while reading this novel, admittedly my first by this author, I couldn't shake the sinking feeling that I was reading a lot of self-congratulatory crap from a man who thinks he is smarter than he actually is and who has such a dedicated base of readers that he doesn't even have to try... or edit. I can forgive a novel for being loquacious, wandering, unfortunately conceived, and self-absorbed. I loved My Struggle, after all. I can't forgive a book that is all of these things and yet has no ideas to offer.

This book is like adult contemporary music, clearly popular but not for me. ( )