"[citation needed] Reviews of the book liken it to his self-penned liner notes to two of his albums recorded around the same time, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited.

The book follows a structure similar to that of a few of Dylan's songs; the vague story, references to various historical or made up characters and unusual punctuation.

[citation needed] Numerous bootleg versions of the book were available on the black market through 1971, when it was officially published, to critical scorn.

Dylan came in first place with this line from Tarantula: "now's not the time to act silly, so wear your big boots & jump on the garbage clowns."

In the early 21st century, Tarantula was re-released in English and translated into French,[7] Spanish,[8] Portuguese, Romanian, Croatian, Czech and Polish.