This book is a gas-a carbonated novel whose bubbly mirth and flagrant lunacies
mask a deeper aim. Will Sylvan Woods, it asks, ever manage to shed his callow cynicism and become a fully realized innocent? He is, to be sure, the least likely of heroes, and the road before him is murky and perilous. Demons await him at every turn. He will be tempted by money, fame, common sense, even by truth. Will he transcend them? You'll have to read Mad Shoes to learn the answer. You'll be laughing at the end of it, and your heart will be as light as a feather.