I don't care what anyone says. I love Tom Robbins. Also, the commentary on our culture's detachment from what is truly sexy and provocative is novel like a little truth that i want to take out and look at sometimes because it's so cute. ( )

Loved it!!! Loved every minute of it!!! This is one of those books that when you finally finish the last page, you just sit back in amazement and say, "Wow!!" Over and over again!!

I guess it helps that the subplot revolves around religion and the fanatics who so populate it. As I keep saying, I am not much of a review writer, but I will try to sum the book up in as few words as possible.

I am actually reminded of an old Red Hot Chili Peppers song, "Blood, Sugar Sex Magic!! She's tragic!! Sex Magic!!" That pretty much sums up the book but to be more precise it is the story of a tortured artist named Ellen Cherry and her new husband Boomer Petway, both of Colonial Pines, VA (which in real life is Colonial Heights, I used to live there), who set out from Seattle Washington for New York in their RV, which has been made up to look like a giant Turkey. Once in New York, things don't work out too well for them, and they become estranged. Ellen Cherry has a very religious family, of the Southern Baptist variety, back in VA, all except for her mama. Her uncle is even a Baptist preacher, of the hell fire and brimstone sort. In short, he is a religious fanatic, preaching about the New Jerusalem and bent on hastening Armageddon.

Along the way, we get the philisophical and religious musings of a can o' beans, a spoon, a dirty sock, a conch shell and a painted stick. Yep, you heard that correct. May sound silly but it's actually nothing short of brilliant. You learn a lot about the real Jezebel of the Old Testament and how the paternalistic religious authorities have maligned her name. You learn about the real Solomon and how he was not really as wise as everyone has been led to believe. You learn about Solome and how she danced the dance of the seven veils for her stepfather, King Herod, before he produced the head of John the Baptist.

All of this is interspersed within the main plot of Ellen Cherry and her purposefully leaving the art world to work as a waitress at the Isaac and Ishmael's, a joint venture between a Jew and an Arab. You learn all about the real historical reasons for all the turmoil in the middle east, why Jews and Arabs hate each other so much. Hint, it has to do with the name of said restaurant.

At any rate, this was a terrific book, all the way up to the end. I just loved how all the 7 veils dropped one by one, both literally and figuratively,but I must say that there were no huge epiphanies here for me. The secrets that were revealed, I have either already thought of myself or read elsewhere, but it was very entertaining and thought provoking none the less.

The book is very humorous, but it does have it's serious side, it is talking about religion and metaphysical truths, after all.

I will just leave you with one little quote from the book that I particularly liked and think is very true, "The dead are all laughing at us." ( )

This book needs a better ending. It felt as though Robbins was rushed into finishing it and just wrapped it up in the quickest and least interesting way possible. Good read up until the end, then it was a bit of a disappointment... ( )

An odd but intriguing story dealing with life, love and politics. I enjoyed it even if I didn't understand all of the metaphors I should have! ( )

Typical Tom Robbins...which means it's anything but typical. how do you describe that first acid trip when you realized the world was so much more than you had thought. Difference - after the cascade effect brought on by the acid wears away - Tom Robbins is still there. ok, so is some of the acid trip, 'nother story.