Alther's main character, Jude, is the quintessential picaresque heroine in this multifaceted adventure. A proud, reserved person with a quick intelligence and a lively sense of humor, Jude has the ability to be present in many scenes but fully part of none.

Elusive and androgynous to the point where the reader is unsure of what she exactly looks like, her style is to have no style, no distinctive presentation which defines her. Boyish enough to pass for a man, as a child she went without a shirt and earned respect by being able to urinate while standing.

Like her appearance, her sexuality is ambiguous: Molly and Sandy would have preferred her to be a boy. But in a matter of hours, Anna had erased all that, leaving Jude grateful to be a female, and the more female, the better.

Although in Alther's fiction initiation experiences very often involve...