[2] After the bound galleys of the novel were produced in September 2006, Theroux added this sentence to justify the cover art, describing protagonist Eugene Eyestones's room: "Almost in counterpoint [to an "ikon of the Madonna"] hung a photograph of the transfiguringly lovely Evelyn Nesbit, the 'Girl on the Velvet Swing,' vivid of beauty, long of hair, American ikon of sex and scandal, love and loss" (p. 71).

Eugene Eyestones, an erudite recluse and bespectacled Vietnam veteran, writes The Sexual Intellectual, a column that discusses anything related to sex, as a contributor to Quink, a monthly magazine published in Boston by Minot Warholic.

They include characters named Discknickers, the “pseudo-fascist” accountant; Ratnaster, the atheist interviewer; Duxbak, Eyestones' only friend; Mutrix, the homophobe lawyer; Chasuble, the homophile movie critic; and lesbians Ann Marie Tubb and The Krauthammer.

Back in Boston, they start to drift apart, and Laura becomes obsessed with the Craven Slucks, a local rock band, throwing herself at its lead singer Jeff.

"[4] “Unrepentantly erudite and opinionated, Theroux is a prolix polymath with a predilection for employing the proper word (even if you’ve never before seen it) and for chronicling obsessive behavior, usually between men and women,“ writes Anthony Miller.

[1] Full of “ten-dollar words and killer factoids” the novel has similarities to his previous work, Darconville's Cat, describing love and hate, loss and longing in the human male-female relationship.

[5] Scott Bryan Wilson sees the novel as a "compendium of vituperation against contemporary society, jabs at pop culture, exposés of office politics, and exploration of life and love in modern times".