"The meek will inherit the earth. They are too weak to refuse." -- Matt Ruff
Keeping in a comic spirit, the next author in "Thirty Authors in Thirty Days" is Matt Ruff. Like Tom Robbins, Matt Ruff has an intensely absurdist vein running through his books. Also like Robbins, Ruff is from the east coast but now lives in Washington State.
I first picked up his book Fool on the Hill while attending college and being near Ithaca (where the book takes place) it was fun to picture the scenes in the book in a familiar setting. The book is about a writer at Cornell University named Stephen George, who by the end of the book figures out that he can kinda sorta write reality. Getting there is the fun part. There are many subplots and a zany cast of characters that includes a dog/cat duo who speak in telepathy, a society of invisible sprites, and Mr. Sunshine, a retired Greek god who runs the whole show.
Ruff's second book, Sewer, Gas, & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (from which the opening quote is taken) is similar to Fool on the Hill in that it has multiple subplots and a wide cast of characters. The comparison ends there. Sewer, Gas, & Electric takes places in the not-to-distant future in a kind of Ayn Randian dystopia where Objectivism rules, but the world is not better for it. Buildings climb ever higher by the sheer will of the individual, activist pirates sail the seven seas in polka-dot submarines, slapsticking their way to a better world one whipped cream cannon assault at a time and certain individuals will prevail over all. Everybody else (including an entire race) is left bobbing in the wake. Rand herself is even a character in the book albeit in a disembodied computer know-it-all form. All of this is tied into a neat little package by the end.
If Ruff's imagination isn't yet apparent, there is also this PDF [new window] that I found on his website. Drawn in a spiral bound notebook, it is a picture narrative of what I can only describe as the war to end all acorn wars. That's all I can say. You'll have to click the link. It does show, though, his creativity at a young age. Ruff also states on his site that he knew he wanted to be a writer by the time he was five. I really admire that.
That's where my reading of Ruff has tapered off. There is a third book called Set This House in Order that has something to do with multiple personalities. It was widely acclaimed and even won an award or two. And just released in July is Bad Monkeys (another book with a psychological angle) that sounds like it will be a good read. I think I will pick up both.
Resources:
Matt Ruff's home page,
www.bymattruff.com, is packed with information about Ruff and his books and it looks to be compiled and maintained by Ruff himself.
Matt Ruff's books on amazon.