Set This House In Order: A Romance of Souls
Title: Set This House In Order: A Romance of Souls
Author: Matt Ruff
First, I have to say, this is not a romance novel. Which is good, because I would rather pluck my bikini line with tweezers than read a romance novel. Side-note: I listened to a Nicholas Sparks audio book once on a road trip. The sheer ridiculousness of it kept me awake while driving, gave boyfriend and I something to laugh at, made me ashamed to live in a world where this “writer” was a best seller, and had me wondering if Mr. Sparks likes lace curtains and bubble baths.
Anyhow, I devoured all 496 pages of “Set This House In Order” in 1 day, that is how much I enjoyed it. Matt Ruff is a great storyteller. I really enjoyed his first book, “Fool on the Hill” which seemed to me like an adult fairy tale. It was a great read, very fantasyish. So, I was surprised when I picked up “Set This House In Order” which is about two people with Multiple Personality Disorder due to abusive upbringings coming to terms with their past. The contents of these two books couldn’t have been more different, but one thing was consistent, the story was well told.
In STHIO, the character development was fantastic. This was no easy task considering the two main characters had at least 5 separate characters (personalities) each that had to be introduced and developed, and I felt like I knew all of them well. The plot line was simple, which was important because with all of the characters a complex storyline would have muddied the waters. Even so, there were no plot-holes or loose ends. The ending was a bit anti-climactic but at least Ruff didn’t take the “and they all lived happily ever after” way out.
Ruff is quickly climbing my favorite authors list. In fact, his most recent book “Bad Monkeys” is sitting on my bookshelf, calling to me. However, I have a rule… I don’t read the same author back to back. I am not sure why, I think because writers either have a certain style, or their subject matter is often very similar between books that the books have a tendency to run together in my memory. So, I think next I will pick up “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” by Haruki Murakami . Murakami is currently my favorite author. Unfortunately this is the last book of his that has been translated into English that I have not yet read. I’ll let you know how it is.
So, I rarely buy hardcover books. It’s not because of the price, I just don’t have the arm strength to hold a book that heavy over my head for hours at a time. I almost always read while laying on my back with the book between my eyes and the light/sun. The light doesn’t really bother my eyes, my OCD requires that the book be held at an angle that it completely block out the outline of the light or sun. But, holding a hardback at that angle causes me to read for shorter periods of time. This is a problem with the book I started yesterday, “What is the What” by Dave Eggers. Eggers also wrote “A Heartbreaking Work of Stagering Genius”, which I thoroughly enjoyed but it took me weeks to finish even while unemployed although I am not sure why. WITW, however, is impossible to put down. I didn’t even want to buy it until it came out in paperback but I made the mistake of picking it up and reading the first chapter in the store while Keith was still pawing through travel books at Borders and I knew it would be added to my backlog within the week.