If you have not read Tom Robbins' novels, then you need to — now. His novel, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, is the forth book of his I have read, and the third of which I can confidently say is on my all-time-favorite-books list.

When I first picked it up, I was daunted by how long it was (some 400-plus pages), but found that by the end I wished it was longer. It amazed me how each page was filled with imagination and strangeness — such as the scene when the main character accidentally eats his grandmother's pet parrot.

The center of this novel is a man named Switters — a risky choice for an author because most times a character is not complex and interesting enough to carry the weight of an entire story. Switters is a 35-year-old, educated and jocular CIA agent with a thing for wine and Broadway tunes.

The book bounces around in such an unsystematic manner that one could easily dismiss the story as fake and unlikely. But the strange part is that you don't. Robbins draws you so far into his world that you eat up every word he says, losing regard for the logical world, and isn't that what good books were made for?

Jahla Seppanen is a freshman at Sarah Lawrence College. You can reach her at jnm747@hotmail.