An Arab and a Jew open a restaurant together across the street from the United Nations. It sounds like the beginning of an ethnic joke, but it's the axis around which spins this gutsy, fun-loving, and alarmingly provocative novel, in which a bean can philosophizes, a dessert spoon mystifies, a young waitress takes on the New York art world, and a rowdy redneck welder discovers the lost god of Palestine, while the illusions that obscure humanity's...

A clairvoyant girl enthralled by the mysterious beauty of butterflies marries the son of Congo missionaries, and the newlyweds set up a roadside zoo.

The cowgirls on the Rubber Rose Ranch stage a rebellion. Delores Del Ruby leads the uprising, but Sissy Hankshaw provides the spiritual leadership for the ragtag bunch of female bandits.