Well, it was a mixed bag.
I'd give five stars just for the first section of the book which explains the Apostles lifestyle and religious beliefs. What a wonderful, novel religion. Had me laughing--I thought I'd never see Candida (yeast overgrowth) in fiction, let a lone a religious setting! So much of the matriarchal apostles was familiar...I mean I think he concocted a believable amalgam of feminist, health-nut spiritual beliefs; and he did so tenderly (kudos for that).
Once the Apostles hit Show Shoe, Colorado, on a quest to find converts to bring new stock into their dying flock, the story looses it's appeal. Part of me had no interest in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, which made it hard to "immerse" myself into the story. I also found myself lost a lot, having trouble following how a character moved into a new conversation or situation. This really troubled me, and I am at a total loss at how to describe it well. Maybe a lack of description and setting, or poor segues?
They story redeemed itself by wrapping itself up well.
( )

Very much in the style of Tom Robbins. ( )

Kirn’s novel starts promisingly enough with a hilarious account of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles, a matriarchal sect located in an isolated town of Bluff, Montana. The Apostles are obsessed with digestion, and observe strict diets that focus on fish. Unfortunately, the only fish near Bluff is trout, and the Apostles only limited ways of preparing it. The sect also has unusual mating rituals, which start with the Sanctified Midsummer Frolic, a religious festival in which the young males are initiated into sex by female partners chosen for them by their families, and in preparation for which they practice mental exercises that will “arrest their pleasure at the last moment,” so as to avoid pregnancy.

The Apostles’ population is dwindling, and so they select two young men, Mason and Elias, to travel to what they call Terrestria and find new brides. And that is where the novel goes downhill, with depictions of Mason and Elias in a predictable episodes that mock modern American culture, from their obsessive consumption of chicken wings and soda, to Mason’s amazement with teeth whiteners, to their involvement with underage girls who claim to be Wiccan. Their travels end with an almost visit to the ranch of a wealthy Coloradan that ends with an ill-fated buffalo shoot, and with the book moving from parody to absurdity.

Just not very funny or very insightful. ( )

Not as funny - or biting - as I thought it would be. ( )

Two young men--one of them the narrator--set out from their isolated, eclectic cult in Montana to recruit fresh blood as a man plots a takeover of the matriarchal cult. The pair end up on the Colorado ranch of a sick, elderly man. Our narrator is confused about his role in the cult & in the world but is ultimately a healthy soul surrounded by manipulators. ( )