The novel was published on March 11, 1989, with an initial printing of 20,000 copies. Reviewing the novel in the "New York Times", Stephen Dobyns wrote, "The plot, once the spectacle is stripped away, is fairly conventional; while the characters, once free of their humps, fins, tails and general geekiness, tend toward specific types. The language, although wonderfully descriptive, is tied to the linguistic limitations of the narrator and is not interesting by itself." the book sold more than 400,000 copies, 10,000 of them ebooks.