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An entertaining, engaging, humorous, zany, absurd, original novel. The author’s imaginatively descriptive prose made me smile so many times. If you are a Robbins fan you should find this book a very satisfying reading experience. However some readers will be put off by the unlikeable characters, crazy plot and over the top sex scenes.

Gwen Mati is a young stock broker who loves money and on Friday night finds herself in financially dire straits due to a stock market crash. Her boyfriend Belford, a successful real estate agent is thinking about giving his money away and becoming a social worker. Belford rescued a monkey, Andre, who had been trained to be a thief. Gwen bumps into sleazy old Larry Diamond, a former stock broker. Gwen doesn’t like Larry but things change over the course of the weekend. Larry meets Gwen lots over the weekend, imparting his stock broking wisdom and how he will beat the cancer he has. Andre, the monkey, escapes from Belford and a fair amount of time over the weekend is spent looking for Andre.

Here are some quotes from the book:
‘Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It’s no coincidence we call them deadlines.�
‘There’s no such thing as security in this life sweetheart, and the sooner you accept that fact, the better off you’ll be. The person who strives for security will never be free. The person who believes she’s found security will never reach paradise. What she mistakes for security is purgatory. You know what purgatory is, Gwendolyn? It’s the waiting room, it’s the lobby. Not only does she have the wrong libretto, she’s stuck in the lobby where she can’t see the show.�
‘In the beginning was the thing. And one thing led to another.�

This book was first published in 1994.