Fool on the Hill

It's nearly Halloween, so I thought my first post would be about all books scary and horrible.  But I think I've watched one too many episodes of The Walking Dead for that.  Right now, I want to talk about an old favorite.

"Mr. Sunshine first enters the city near dusk of a spring day in 1866, after heavy showers have turned its dirt roads and streets to mud soup.  This is not the sort of weather that Mr. Sunshine prefers, but he is drawn on by a smell, a sweet smell that cannot be covered or washed away by the scent of fresh rain: the smell of Story." 

-- Matt Ruff, Fool on the Hill

Fool on the Hill is the story of one Stephen Titus George, a young professional liar -- that is, fiction writer -- who already has everything he's ever wanted...except for love.  Braided in an around the story of S.T. George is that of Luther the dog, who is on a quest to find Heaven; his long-suffering, atheist cat companion, Blackjack; and a Midwestern "princess" named Aurora Borealis Smith, who is trying to decide whether the decent man everyone believes she will marry is really the man for her.  All of these characters -- along with a battalion of sword-wielding sprites and horseback-riding, justice-seeking college seniors who call themselves the Bohemians -- are caught up in an epic struggle with evil as a powerful enemy terrorizes the idyllic Cornell campus.

If you think that sounds complicated, let me tell you that the above description doesn't even begin to capture everything going on in this book.  Matt Ruff wrote this over-the-top fantasy when he was a twenty-year-old college student and it shows — in the best possible way. I first read it when I wasn't much older than twenty myself and I adored it.  Still do.  I can best sum it up by this quote from the book, something that was meant to be a criticism of the main character's fiction: "You have a fair writing style.  It's good in an unpolished sort of way.  Other than that I thought your entire premise was far-fetched and there was way too much profanity.  The whole thing struck me as being too romantic, too, by the way."  Well, what more could you ask for?

Read it if you like:

... exuberant, over-the-top fantasies with a multitude of intertwining story lines, romantic boys and kick-ass girls, a huge dose of irreverent humor, references to everything from Shakespeare to Tolkien to Greek myth, and ridiculously satisfying happy endings.

This book is an adult novel.

-- L.