To be honest, I've read quite a bit of this guy's work and this has been my least favourite so far. It tells the story of the worst day of a woman's life followed by a weekend which progressively gets stranger and stranger. Nothing about Robbins' books conveys a normal sense of what you would expect in a fiction novel. There is no over-reaching plot, climax or distinct characterisation but rather a combination of unreal and extenuating circumstances. This is what makes his books so different and so fantastic.
In this one, after a stock market crash before the Easter weekend, a stockbroker, Gwendolyn stresses about her future. We then follow her from looking for her boyfriend's pet monkey who has escaped and getting to know another man, Larry Diamond who attempts to expand her purely stock-oriented mind and searching for her friend Q-Jo who is a tarot card reader who has mysteriously failed to turn up home and cannot be found anywhere. Gwendolyn, over this weekend which she begins with what she believes is the "worst day of my life" discovers what she really wants; sexually, career-wise and for herself.
As usual, Robbins uses his brilliant prose and infinitely random mind in a new way. The book is full of metaphors and it wouldn't do me any harm to read it again just to remember some of the more brilliant ones. Plus monkeys are one of my favourite animals so that also helps.
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