It is a literary event when a genuinely new fictional voice comes along. When that voice achieves its newness not through a certain formal facility but through the freshness of its vision, there is truly something to celebrate. Matt Ruff was only twenty-two when Fool on the Hill was first published, but with his novel he gave us a story that won over readers of every persuasion. Not your usual first effort, Fool on the Hill is a full-blown epic of life and death, good and evil, magic and love.
Think of the imaginative daring of Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale. The zany popism of Tom Robbins’s Another Roadside Attraction. The gnomish fantasies of J.R. Tolkien. Think of these and you begin to get some idea of one of the most remarkable first novels to come along in years.
In the world of Fool on the Hill dogs and cats can talk, a subculture of sprites lives in the shadows and underfoot (if you’re the sensitive type, or drunk enough, you might see them cavorting across the lawn), and the Bohemians, a group of Harley- and horseback-riding students dedicated to all things unconventional, hold all-night revels for the glory of their cause.
Then there is Stephen Titus George, the novel’s youthful hero, who somehow finds himself the main player in a story that began well over a century ago. George is a mild-mannered flier of kites, a sometimes writer of bestselling fiction, and would-be knight looking for a maiden. George will find his girl and the century-old story will provide the proverbial dragon whose slaying will sanctify their love. But it will not be a sword that fells the foe but the transforming power of the imagination. **
Wer gute Fantasy mag die humorig und gleichzeitig anspruchsvoll sein
soll, wird an diesem Buch nicht vorbeikommen! Matt Ruff verbindet in
diesem Buch die schier unglaublichen Vorkommnisse an einer
amerikanischen Universität mit dem ganz normalen Wahnsinn des Lebens!
Seine liebenswerten Charaktere, die zwar etwas abgedreht sind, aber
trotzdem mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde stehen, sind dem Leser schon
nach einer halben Seite ans Herz gewachsen! Ob nun ein Kater und eine
Promenadenmischung in den Himmel für Hunde und Katzen aufbrechen oder
die Bohemier sich mit der Rho Alpha Tau anlegen, es ist ein Fest für
den Leser! Es bleibt nur noch zu sagen, das jeder der an die große
Liebe, Kobolde und abgedrehte Studentenverbindungen glaubt dieses Buch
bald in sein Herz geschlossen haben wird!
Description:
It is a literary event when a genuinely new fictional voice comes along. When that voice achieves its newness not through a certain formal facility but through the freshness of its vision, there is truly something to celebrate. Matt Ruff was only twenty-two when Fool on the Hill was first published, but with his novel he gave us a story that won over readers of every persuasion. Not your usual first effort, Fool on the Hill is a full-blown epic of life and death, good and evil, magic and love.
Think of the imaginative daring of Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale. The zany popism of Tom Robbins’s Another Roadside Attraction. The gnomish fantasies of J.R. Tolkien. Think of these and you begin to get some idea of one of the most remarkable first novels to come along in years.
In the world of Fool on the Hill dogs and cats can talk, a subculture of sprites lives in the shadows and underfoot (if you’re the sensitive type, or drunk enough, you might see them cavorting across the lawn), and the Bohemians, a group of Harley- and horseback-riding students dedicated to all things unconventional, hold all-night revels for the glory of their cause.
Then there is Stephen Titus George, the novel’s youthful hero, who somehow finds himself the main player in a story that began well over a century ago. George is a mild-mannered flier of kites, a sometimes writer of bestselling fiction, and would-be knight looking for a maiden. George will find his girl and the century-old story will provide the proverbial dragon whose slaying will sanctify their love. But it will not be a sword that fells the foe but the transforming power of the imagination. **
Wer gute Fantasy mag die humorig und gleichzeitig anspruchsvoll sein soll, wird an diesem Buch nicht vorbeikommen! Matt Ruff verbindet in diesem Buch die schier unglaublichen Vorkommnisse an einer amerikanischen Universität mit dem ganz normalen Wahnsinn des Lebens! Seine liebenswerten Charaktere, die zwar etwas abgedreht sind, aber trotzdem mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde stehen, sind dem Leser schon nach einer halben Seite ans Herz gewachsen! Ob nun ein Kater und eine Promenadenmischung in den Himmel für Hunde und Katzen aufbrechen oder die Bohemier sich mit der Rho Alpha Tau anlegen, es ist ein Fest für den Leser! Es bleibt nur noch zu sagen, das jeder der an die große Liebe, Kobolde und abgedrehte Studentenverbindungen glaubt dieses Buch bald in sein Herz geschlossen haben wird!