"To describe a Tom Robbins plot does not begin to describe a Tom Robbins novel. His seventh and biggest book is no exception. Robbins himself cheerfully explains, "This book was inspired by an entry from Bruce Chatwin's journal, by a CIA agent I met in Southeast Asia, by the mystery surrounding the lost prophecy of the Virgin of Fatima, by the increasing evidence that the interplay of opposites is the engine that runs the universe, and by embroidered memories of old Terry & the Pirates comic books.""