Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The incident during Peter's childhood where he and Humpstone John are attacked by a time-displaced samurai, who cannot speak their language and still insists on rushing into battle with a sword, until Peter by chance manages to knock his sword into the marsh, sending the samurai through the cloud wall. This is never really explained, as with a lot of the supernatural elements of the novel, and the incident is never really mentioned again.
Cult Classic: Despite the book apparently being very well-known and well-regarded in literary circles, it's not very popular outside the United States. A reporter for the Guardian, David Barnett, did manage to write a review of it.
Doorstopper: The book is this. In terms of page count, in printed editions it's usually 745 pages long.
Hard-to-Adapt Work: The book's sprawling scope, massive length, and magical realist style are considered difficult to translate to film. A 2014 film adaptation was panned by critics.
Moment of Awesome: The scene where Pearly makes his case to Lucifer (played brilliantly by Will Smith), who calmly reads a book before denying Pearly's request. Best of all is Lucifer's reply to Pearly when his minion insists on getting what he wants: