A Feast of Snakes strongly echoes the emphasis in other Crews novels on the cult of the physical: the people of Mystic, in their worship of football and its heroes, resemble the bodybuilders and their devotees in This Thing Don't Lead to Heaven (1970), Karate Is a Thing of the Spirit (1971), The Gypsy's Curse (1974), All We Need of Hell (1987), and The Knockout Artist 1988). In these works, Crews consistently uses the pushing of physical limits as a metaphor for man's struggle to survive, change, or transcend the limitations reality imposes.

The resolution of action and theme in a final frenzied mob scene, is classic Crews in changing costume: a lynch mob in The Gospel Singer (1968), a disco crowd in Naked in Garden Hills (1968), and a beach fair in Karate Is a Thing of the Spirit (1971).