The wit and wisdom as the clue to the individual's path to enlightenment in Tom Robbins’ novel Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Miloš Blahút, Slovakia, ID CLEaR2016-362;          Tom Robbins is a representative of the so-called “hippie narrative” stream of authors who emerged in the 1960s America and marked a changing spirituality. In his novels, the writer uses amusing and unconventional metaphors, similes, and idioms, especially in his novel Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000). The main character of the novel, Switters, who is on his adventurous journey to Seattle, Peru, Syria, and the Vatican, experiences a series of seemingly unpredictable incidents. These events are depicted by means of shocking images, grotesque characters, absurd situations, or linguistic play, which serve the author to attack such everyday issues in human life as world religions, politics, or consumerism, to name but a few, employing humour on the level of story as well as discourse.

Key words: Wit, eccentric, postmodern, similes, grotesque