Fool on the Hill

Summary: The story behind Fool on the Hill, as far as I know it, goes as follows: Matt Ruff was an undergraduate English major at Cornell University in upstate New York. When it came time to submit his honors thesis, instead of turning in fifty pages on the use of shoelaces in E.B. White's oeuvre and their relation to the major themes of Norse mythology, or whatever English majors usually write honors theses about, he walks into his advisor's office and plunks down a several-hundred-page draft manuscript of what would eventually become Fool on the Hill.

As to the story within Fool on the Hill, that's a lot harder to summarize. The ostensible main character, Stephen T. George, is a young author living in Ithaca, who spends his time show more writing, falling in and out of love, and flying kites. However, the story focuses equally as much on Luther, a mongrel dog, and Blackjack, a Manx cat, who follow the scent of Heaven all the way to Ithaca; a group of modern knights and erstwhile college students known as the Bohemians; Calliope, a Muse, and the most beautiful woman in the world; Aurora Borealis Smith, student and daughter of a would-be revolutionary; a group of invisible Shakespearean sprites that live throughout campus and help maintain the University; Ragnarok, the motorcycle-riding and mace-wielding Black Knight; and many others. All of them are caught up in a Story being told by Mr. Sunshine, a Greek God who entertains himself by creating "true fictions" with the lives of mortals. And they are all faced with a common enemy from deep history: Rasferret the Grub, whose magical powers of Animation are matched only by his malice. Everyone will have a part to play, but it will ultimately be up to Stephen to learn the art of Writing Without Paper if he's going to save the day, the university, and those he loves when a Dragon Day celebration goes horribly awry.

Review: While I love Fool on the Hill, and would go so far as to say it's one of my favorite books, and particularly one of my favorite books that I *didn't* first read in childhood, I will admit up front that I am rather biased. My predisposition towards this book comes from the fact that it takes place at my alma mater, so I'm intimately familiar with the places, institutions, and even the types of people that populate this book. Plus, there's a bit of a thrill to be had from reading a scene where a car chase (okay, a motorcycle-and-Animated-driverless-truck-full-of-pigs chase) goes zipping right past my junior year apartment.

You might scoff at me saying that reading a book that is so thoroughly grounded in a location helps to make it more real, when that reality involves sprites and magic and a canine university and a flying ice bird and armies of cross-bow-shooting rats. But the truth is that Ithaca, and Cornell, feel like places where magic could happen. When Luther says that Ithaca smells like Heaven, like "green and rain and hills", I can't dispute that in the least. It doesn't hurt that just about every location and tradition in this book is real: The Boneyard is real, Dragon Day is real, Risley the arts dorm is real (and while they didn't have a lot of horses in my day, a swordfight on the lawn would not have been out of place.) About the only place that's not real is Tolkien House, the fraternity that holds its parties in the underground grove of Lothlorien, reached by crossing the bridge of Khazad-Dum - and for all I know, Tolkien House *is* real, and I just never got invited to any parties there. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

So, while Fool on the Hill is certainly going to appeal most to Cornellians, I really do think that it's a wonderful novel regardless of where you went to school. It's about three parts fairy tale, two parts urban fantasy (as urban as you can be in Ithaca, anyways), two parts mythology, one part zany screwball comedy, one part tragedy, and liberal doses of horror, action-adventure, and romance. It's also jam-packed with more literary references than you can shake a B.A. in English at, drawing heavily on Shakespeare, Tolkien, and Greek mythology, but also throwing in glancing allusions to everyone from Ray Bradbury to A. A. Milne to Samuel Beckett.

Jam-packed is a good way to describe the book in general, but Ruff does his usual excellent job of balancing a huge host of characters and a bunch of storylines. The pacing's not perfect - the main bad guy doesn't even show up until about halfway through - and some of the minor characters aren't much more than caricatures, but all of the main characters are so sympathetic and all of the storylines so interesting that I never really minded just reading about what they were up to, even if it didn't directly bear on the central plot. The short chapters keep things ticking along quickly until eventually all of the disparate pieces come together like clockwork in the final chapters. It's a big, sprawling jumble of a novel, but I mean that in the best way possible - tons of characters, tons of action, tons of laughter and sweetness and tears and charm, all added up to a thoroughly enjoyable novel that's got something for every fantasy fan. 5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: I love this book, and while I'm admittedly biased, I really do think that even non-Cornellian fantasy and fairy-tale fans, as well as those who have enjoyed Ruff's later work, or who like Christopher Moore's books, will find something here to love as well. show less

This is a fantasy novel set at Cornell University (or a slightly more fantastic version thereof). It features, among many others, a dog searching for heaven, a storyteller searching for love, a colony of sprites who are mostly invisible to humans, a couple of meddling Greek deities, and an old evil lying dormant in a graveyard. Also a dragon. Sort of.

It's a fun, offbeat story, full of literary references to everything from Shakespeare to Winnie the Pooh, with a pleasantly ridiculous plot and some surprisingly well-developed characters. Indeed, if I have one complaint about it, it's that so many of the characters whose stories are interlaced together here feel like they really need a novel of their own, uninterrupted by other people's show more stories, to fully do them justice.

Also, it really made me wish I'd gone to Cornell. I suspect people with an actual connection to the place are likely to enjoy it even more. show less

Kind of a fairy tale with a twist. Crazy compelling characters, a plot that was out of this world, literally (unless you believe in sprites).The only problem I had with it was there was too much death -- human, sprite and canine, but the most major of the characters did survive for a happy ending. Definitely a very different, inventive fantasy. I definitely enjoyed it.

Arguably my all-time favorite book, but best enjoyed by those familiar with Ithaca, NY. One of the most legitimately pleasurable reads out there. For fantasy dorks, romantics, Cornellians, anyone.

To be honest, I'm surprised this book has so many positive reviews. It's definitely a first novel. Chaotic, brimming with literary references, and somewhat pretentious, I found myself skimming most of the book. The basic premise is that life is a play directed by God to amuse himself, and you're hit on the head with this over and over (yes, we've all considered that idea ourselves before without any help, thank-you-very-much).

Part of the reason I may have found it harder to read than most folks is that I'm recent Cornell graduate, and a Risleyite (once a Risleyite, always a Risleyite... it's rather like being a Queen of Narnia). I found all the familiar things distracting. It also made me notice a certain immaturity in the plot of this show more novel (definitely reflected in Risley culture even today), which is the belief that Risleyites are superior and frats are evil. It's this sort of clique-ishness- the idea of "us" vs. "them"- that the novel spends so much time tearing down in other areas (black vs. white, purebred dog vs. mongrel). The inconsistency, I think, definitely reveals a young author.

Well, at least now I know where the rumor that dogs are allowed to roam free on the arts quad came from. show less

A few of my thoughts on the author, having read only this, his debut effort:

Matt Ruff is smart. Not Nabokov smart. Not Pynchon smart. Not Dave Foster Wallace neurotic, tortuously smart. In fact, maybe he's not quite so smart after all.

Matt Ruff has read a few books. [b:Tolkien|5907|The Hobbit Or There and Back Again|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1233949700s/5907.jpg|1540236]. Who doesn't like Tolkien? [b:Greek|820461|The Greek Myths|Robert Graves|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178673714s/820461.jpg|50975] and [b:Norse|24655|D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths|Ingri D'Aulaire|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167542590s/24655.jpg|372563] mythology is fun, too. And [b:V.|529488|V.|Thomas show more Pynchon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175560583s/529488.jpg|2999000]! I love V. Wait, though; besides the pun (Benny Profane and the V-necks, a college band) there's no substance to that reference. Nor most of the others (see: Bradbury). In fact, this all looks more like namedropping than anything else.

Matt Ruff is young. Painfully young. His entire world shares a tedious, undergraduate attitude towards sex. Good thing the story is set on a college campus, where at least most of the world actually is an undergraduate. Or a dog. Turns out dogs are a lot like undergrads.

Matt Ruff has a hard time thinking up names for his characters.

Matt Ruff is pomo. It's too bad that his biggest "don't forget that there is a person writing this story that you're reading" effort comes writing himself in as God. And as the hero. Both. Shit!

Negative enough for you? The writing is pretentious without the stylistic flair, broad knowledge, or deep complexity of story that would allow me to put aside the pretension and really enjoy myself. But my friends love him so! And, for all his juvenile flailing, Ruff spins a decent yarn. There's promise; probably worth trying a more mature effort of his. [Book:Set This House in Order|71847]? show less

How Matt Ruff got from this to the brilliant "Set this House in Order" I don't know. It's not a bad book but is too highly self aware of itself to be as good as it thinks it is.