The novel, written as a follow-up to Marcus's literary debut, The Age of Wire and String, deals with an abstruse Ohio family, which shares the author's surname.

Playing with the English language in such a manner that his work has drawn comparison's to Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, among other novels, Marcus describes the cultish, recondite practises of his mother, her enigmatic mentor Jane Dark, and their legion of disciples as they attempt to create perfect stillness in the world by eliminating the "wind violence" of speech and, ultimately, physical movement.

Dark, witty, and depressing in its ironic hilarity, Notable American Women allows the reader to delve into the mind of a well-meaning but obtuse young man, to glimpse into his turbulent upbringing full of radical experimentation and forced-breeding (among other things) and, possibly, to become attached.

Jane Marcus, too, is nearing complete and utter emotional obliteration, using a complex system of body contortions, and takes the opportunity to address the reader.

Widely applauded not just for his imaginative story but his ingenious wordplay, Ben Marcus's first novel received acclaim despite little mainstream attention.