This Tom Robbins novel is a fun ride. Switters, the protagonist is a CIA agent who through several sub stories ends up in the Amazon where a shaman curses him never to rest his feet on the ground again, lest he dies.
We’re introduced to many characters:
- Maestra, grandmother who owns a Matisse painting of a Blue Reclining Woman
- Sailor Boy, a parrot whom Switters was supposed to release into the Amazon but ended up eating by “mistake”
- Today is Tomorrow, the pyramid-headed shaman who curses Switters
- Suzy, teenaged step-sister whom Switters is madly in lust with
- Bobby Case, CIA friend
- Seattle Art Girls who make little boats and race them in gutters along Pike Place
- Veiled Beauty, the abbess of a Syrian convent who was the model for Matisse’s painting
- Domino, a nun whom Switters falls in love with
- This isn’t everyone, but a rough list
Switters travels through the Far East, South America, Washington DC, Pacific Northwest, and the Middle East.
A focus of the story is the “Our Lady of Fatima” event that happened in Portugal in 1917 where 3 children saw a Mary apparition who gave them 3 prophecies.
As I read, I wasn’t thinking about how the book was going to end; how the curse was going to be cured or not. The characters and story were engaging that it was fun enough just to be in their world.
