Fool on the Hill | |||||||||||||||
Matt Ruff | |||||||||||||||
Grove/Atlantic Books, 400 pages | |||||||||||||||
|
A review by David Soyka
I'm told that Fool on the Hill is something of a cult classic among college students, and it's not hard to
figure out why. Ruff ponders the BIG ISSUES -- i.e. the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life and love -- in an
accessible, light-hearted way that undergraduates with pretensions of being hip will gladly prefer over Moby
Dick. It's particularly relevant to student nerds because it takes place on a college campus -- Cornell -- with
a plot that pits social misfits against dumb frat guys and various other meanies in a battle of good over evil
(guess who wins). In my own college days, you were cool if you read Vonnegut; I don't know what this says
about the zeitgeist of the upcoming generation, but Ruff is a better, more optimistic writer with a finer
sense of narrative.
English majors will have a field day with the explicit symbolism in this book, which is both a source of its
amusement and annoyance. Cornell is located in Ithaca, NY, a reference of course to the fabled home of
Odysseus, so, not surprisingly, several journeys take place. As in Sewer, Gas and Electric, there are a variety
of seemingly disparate characters who come together in a potentially catastrophic clash that turns out all
right in the end. These include the Bohemians (a loose affiliation of graduating seniors who more than live
up their namesake), sprites (as in little invisible fairies, but lacking wings and therefore having to rely upon
model airplanes and boats to get about), and dogs and cats (who communicate telepathically). The Fool is the
adult figure, a Cornell writer-in-residence (and maybe Ruff's alter ego?) named Stephen Titus George. Give
yourself extra points if you've derived "St. George" from the character's initials and that you might expect a
battle with a dragon (in fact there are two). Then there are the loves of George's life, Calliope (the Greek
Muse of poetry) and Aurora Borealis Smith (a student going out with a pompous fundamentalist Christian who
becomes George's guiding light). The plot hinges on the opening of a Pandora's Box, unleashing the evil
Rasferret to seek revenge against the sprites who imprisoned him. This rodent creature (which you might
suspect is an allusion to the rat bad guys of Redwall, except the novel was originally published at about
the same time as Brian Jacques's first book in the series) is also capable of animating mannequins and tractor
trailers to wreak havoc upon the humans, culminating in the final duel on the Hill. Whew!
Presiding over the fates of this improbable collection is Mr. Sunshine, some sort of Greek god who metaphysically
outlines, without ever fully writing out the details, how their respective stories will unfold. Aha, you
say! A theological proposition that humanity has free will to act in a universe in which God sets the
parameters, but not the specifics, thus allowing for the existence of evil. And, at the same time, a meta-fictional
reference to the omniscient narrator and the art of storytelling. A bit obvious, isn't it? And what's the
significance of calling this character "Mr. Sunshine"? That everything turns out all right in the
end? Sounds a bit lame to me.
Indeed, while Ruff manages to hammer all these implausible materials into an engaging plot structure, at times
the workmanship isn't always first-rate. For example, several of his sprites have Shakespearean names. But
what's the point? Hamlet has nothing in common with his namesake except that it provides for a chapter called
"Hamlet Sees a Ghost." Similarly, Laertes has a sister who dies, but this time she is murdered, and there's no
subsequent revenge scene. As for Puck, the hero sprite, I don't see what he has in common with the Robin
Goodfellow of Midsummer's Night Dream.
Ruff seems to know this, as he provides an explanation of these sophomoric literary references in a scene where
Aurora asks George why she is telling him about the novelist/songwriter and former
Cornell student Richard Fariña:
While Sewer, Gas and Electric has the trappings of an SF novel, though the science fictional devices are
incidental, Fool on the Hill is pure fantasy. It's also not as accomplished, so if you've never read Ruff,
I'd recommend starting with the second book. But definitely check out the earlier work.
It will be real interesting to see how Ruff further matures in his next work; unfortunately, taking two years to
write the first and four to complete the second, the wait might be long. But I suspect it will be well worth it.
David Soyka is a former journalist and college teacher who writes the occasional short story and freelance article. He makes a living writing corporate marketing communications, which is a kind of fiction without the art. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide