a little story about fantasy, evil rats, J.R.R Tolkien, Z.Z. TOP, heavan, mogruels vs. Purebreds, racism, pot smoking fathers, magic, sex, the Black Knight and a little college called Cornell
Written: Jan 12 '00
Product Rating:
Pros: you will feel the effects from this books weeks after putting it down
pboy's Full Review: Matt Ruff - Fool on the Hill: A Novel
Usually when I decide to read a book that I have never heard of before, I make the decision because a friends recommends it, or maybe amazon.com will make a recommendation, or I'll happen to see the book in a book store or online and its draws him in someone. Fool on the Hill was entirely different. If I have even been railroaded into reading a book, this is the one. Why? All of a suddent, in a single week I say or heard of the book everywhere.
- First I read an article on Tom Robbins (one of my all time favorite authors). In the article, the author mentioned that there describing Tom Robbins work was very difficult. Not only is the subject matter and style hard to put into words, but there are very few other authors that he can be compared to. (I've had the same problem....). The author did say, however, that Matt Ruff was the closest author he could think of, but Ruff had only published two books so it was too early to compliment him that way. I stuck that in the back of my head.
- Then I logged onto amazon.com to start picking out my January booty of books. Right on top, I saw Fool on the Hill. I ignored it for a little while because I forgot about the article and I wanted to get my hands on my new pet project, Philp K Dick novels. It kept on coming up on my recommendation list.
- Again on amazon.com I was looking at a couple of books and I was kicked over to Neal Stephenson novels. Since I have been recently introduced to this author I looked around in his books. Unser Stephenson, I saw a lists of "customers who bought this book also bought" and sitting right on top was Fool on the Hill. So... I gave up. I had to buy the book just to get it off my lists.
- Interesting enough, in a review of the book, it mentioned a glowing review from Stephenson for the book. So now, not only was I going to buy the book, but it went to the top of my reading lists for the month.
So... here I am now, a couple of sleepless nights later (waiting for a dull moment where I could stop... that never seemed to come), ready to prepare this review. To say the least, I don't know where to begin. I've slated this book for a reread later this month to sort out everything I want to examine further... but for now here I go.
If I have to give this book a label I would have to give it the label of Modern Fantasy Adventure. But that's a little unfair. Adventure implies a lot of action and little else. This book has a little action, but the action justs moves the stories along. What happens between the action is the true guts of this book.
Basically the main story is of S.T. George, a teller of lies (a storyteller). He bascially takes up the plot of a traditional fantasy set in the modern day. He developed a piece of magic when he was a young boy. It is his fate to do battle with a evil and must slay a dragon in the end to save his maiden in trouble. His plight, while on the surface is basic, is actually made complex by the storytelling and the interaction with the other characters.
Luther is a dog on a journey to find heaven and his best friend. He takes the journey with his friend, Blackjack the cat. Instead of heaven, they find the hill at Cornell. Some of the funniest, wittiest, and actually the deepest text is found in the interactions of these two characters with the rest of the canine population. Interesting enough, Luther has his own dragon to slay at the end of the book. On the surface, his dragon is a Purebred dog named Dragon. A little deeper, its his faith is good and his desire to keep evil out of his soul. Cut deeper, and there are truths too big to put in this review.
Then there are the bohemians who all have adventures. In particular though, their is the story of the Black Knight. His father lived for the KKK and forced his son to grow up in that atmosphere. Noing no better, he followed until his teen years when he escaped and changed his beleive system. He escpaed the physical, but was unable to escape the pure hated that the KKK bred into him. He slayed his dragon eventually by retaining control and refusing to kill his main enemy in the end.
Through out the book its interesting Ruff teaches a lesson in one story by simply developing another story longer. For exmaple,
- The bohemian grew up in an environment were he was considered a Purebred. His kind was the "superior breed". Luther was a mogruel and came into problems with the Purebreds who thought themselves better than the mogruels. Part of his spiritual path Luther learned to answer the wuestion "What is the superior breed?" with, there is no superior breed. The superior dog is the dog that can see this. A dog that can admit this has a higher level of learning. Learning this is the key to not learning to to hate. The bohemian finally learned this lesson in the end.
Over just the past 2 days I have found 100 of other comparisons and points that Ruff illustrated. You can find yourself going down the "path of enlightenment" endlessly once you start. Its quite amazing. I haven't read many books that are so pointed and pointed in so many ways. Ruff really has delivered an enlightening, fun, witty, mnasterpiece.
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