At the beginning of Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, the narrator takes a break from narration to comment on technique, saying, "[n]ow, it appears that this prose account has unintentionally begun in partial mimicry of the mind." Here Robbins reveals a technique he has used in every novel, a stream-of-conscious narrative. Almost every one of his novels is told in the third person, using what one reviewer has called a "single omniscient meta-narrator . . . a device [that] allows him to take the reader on a spiritual journey." This narrator-asguru helps Robbins to develop a theme common to all his novels: the quest for enlightenment.

If, according to the narrator in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, the mark of enlightenment is laughter, then another technique Robbins uses might also develop this idea. Figurative language and wordplay in general decorate Robbins's prose. Strong (if unorthodox) images abound from...