8.2 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print Originally published 1988 Page count 396 Country United States of America | 4.1/5 Goodreads Publication date 1988 Pages 396 Genre Fantasy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cover artist original jacket illustration by Andrew Paquette; design by Chip Kidd Publisher The Atlantic Monthly Press Nominations Locus Award for Best First Novel, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Similar Works by Matt Ruff, Fantasy books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fool on the Hill (ISBN 0-8021-3535-8) is a 1988 comic fantasy novel by Matt Ruff, set at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Plot summary
The novel is the story of two authors. Cornell University resident and author Stephen Titus George finds that his real life is becoming the main plot of a retired god, known as Mr. Sunshine. Mr. Sunshine, as god, prefers to create his works in real life instead of on paper. Stephen Titus George decides to fight with Mr. Sunshine about the authorship and outcome of the work.
On the stage of Cornell campus a rich set of secondary characters appears, like Cornell student Aurora Borealis Smith with whom Stephen Titus George falls in love, Ragnarok, the Bohemians, a dog named Luther, a cat named Blackjack, Puck, Calliope, a fire-breathing paper dragon as well as evil forces like Rasferret the Grub, a mannequin called Rubbermaid and an army of rats. The drama then unfolds, telling the 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.