Robbins's protagonist, Ellen Cherry Charles, plays a cameo role in his earlier novel Jitterbug Perfume (1984), in which she first appears as one of the "Daughters of the Daily Special" who receives a grant from her sister-waitresses to pursue her interest in painting. More importantly, the author's treatment of issues concerning personal freedom, spirituality, organized religion, human sexuality, and art which appear in Skinny Legs and All have been previously introduced in earlier works.

Robbins's experience as art critic for the Seattle Times and his research on Jackson Pollack appear to have provided him with much of the background for Ellen Cherry Charles's artistic philosophy, the character of Ultima Sommervell, the art dealer, and the New York setting. Once again, Robbins directs some biting satire toward his birthplace, the Richmond, Virginia, area. His fictional Colonial Pines, actually Colonial Heights, Virginia, is depicted as the constricting home of...