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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
Minimal violence; some confrontations in the New York setting
Language
A lot
Significant profanity — Robbins's literary voice includes crude language
Sexual Content
A lot
Explicit sexual content throughout; Robbins approaches sexuality with philosophical frankness
Substance Use
Some
Significant drinking and some drug use in the artistic milieu
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Strong philosophical content: the novel's extended meditations on art, religion, and civilization require engagement
What this book is about
Ellen Cherry Charles, a painter from Virginia, moves to New York with her husband Boomer Petway and his aluminum turkey. Told alongside the voices of five inanimate objects — a stick, a stone, a shell, a dirty sock, and a painted spoon — making a symbolic pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the novel meditates on art, spirituality, sexuality, and Western civilization's relationship with the Middle East. Tom Robbins's ecstatic, philosophically playful prose is sexually frank and linguistically exuberant.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Explicit sexual content throughout
Significant profanity
Dense philosophical content about religion and civilization that may challenge or provoke some readers
Reader Verification
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