The Exquisite Corpse

Lyric and tender one moment, cruel and dizzying the next, this cult classic neither celebrates perversity nor laments it; rather it projects it as part of man's never-ending search for a true self and for transcendent communion with others. In 49 brief, highly cinematic chapters, we meet a series of twisted but sincere searchers--Tomtom Jim and his naked, hungry family; Mary Poorpoor and her utterly "otherly" baby; angry John Doe and his sex slave, James Madison--each in flight from despair. As one surreal episode morphs into the next, these searchers change shape and their journeys change direction; names and identities come and go, storylines collide, and desires intertwine, all with the lightning-quick illogic of a dream. The result is a tragicomic tour de force, an upside-down roadmap to everyone's inner Sodom, a perversely moral (and morally perverse) masterpiece by a modern-day Marquis de Sade.--From publisher description.