Fool on the Hill (novel)
 first US hardcover edition | |
| Author | Matt Ruff |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | original jacket illustration by Andrew Paquette; design by Chip Kidd |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | The Atlantic Monthly Press |
Publication date | 1988 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 396 |
| ISBN | 0-87113-243-5 |
| Followed by | Sewer, Gas & Electric |
Fool on the Hill is a 1988 comic fantasy novel by American writer Matt Ruff, set at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Plot summary
[edit]The novel is the story of two authors, the buffoonish Prof. Stephen Titus George and his artful adversary Mr. Sunshine. Both live in Ithaca, New York.
During a particularly cold New York winter, George starts to suspect that he is not himself but the creation of someone else, someone he calls "Mr. Sunshine". Sunshine and George enter into a battle of wits to determine who should be called "creator".
Throughout the novel colorful characters on the campus of Cornell University appear. There is the mysterious Cornell student Aurora Borealis Smith with whom Stephen Titus George falls in love. There is the Norse God Ragnarok wielding his Pollaxe. There are the Bohemians, a dog named Luther, a cat named Blackjack, Puck, and Calliope, a fire-breathing paper dragon. And let's not forget evil forces like Rasferret the Grub, a mannequin called Rubbermaid, and an army of rats.
And so the drama then unfolds as it tells the time-tested story of the battle between Good and Evil and the efforts of the two authors to write the story towards either a happy ending or a tragic Greek drama.
External links
[edit]- Matt Ruff official website
- A 1998 review by David Soyka at sfsite.com
- A 1998 review by Sara Lipowitz at flowerfire.com
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