Set This House In Order is an awesome book! I’m not really sure how I acquired it though. After I picked up Ruff’s Bad Monkeys I realized I had this earlier book by him on my shelves. I think I avoided reading it because the cover just screams pretentious
to me. But it’s not! It’s charmingly sweet and engaging.literary
fiction
I have a fascination with mentally ill people. I want to know what it’s like to lose your mind. I realize it can’t be all that pleasant. But I still want to experience both the slide into mental illness at the same time as being able to observe it from a sane perspective. I’ve chatted with Robert the schizophrenic who lives across the street from me. I have several friends with Aspberger’s. Whether or not you want to call any of them ill, the point is they think very differently than I do. And that jut fascinates me.
So when I get hold of fiction that puts me in the head of someone with a mental illness I am thrilled if it’s done well. Set This House In Order is done very well. I can’t vouch for the accuracy that Ruff portrays multiple personality disorder. But how he imagines this works from a first person perspective still provides a coherent sense of how it could present to someone with M.P.D. A way that is nothing like how I think. I now have an opportunity to perceive somewhat differently.
The protagonist is Andrew Gage. As narrator, he tries to tell us he’s a multiple personality, but it takes a few pages for it to really sink in. I’m glad Ruff does this right away:
Aunt Sam says that a good storyteller only reveals important information a little at a time, to keep the audience interested, but I’m afraid if I don’t explain it all now you’ll get confused, which is worse than not being interested.
Ruff doesn’t reveal all of course, but he reveals enough that I wasn’t confused. This should be taught at Aspiring Science Fiction Novelist University. But back to a basic synopsis.
Andrew Gage works at The Reality Factory as a consultant. The Reality Factory is a small start-up trying to create a virtual reality system. Since Andrew has a virtual reality in his head, the start-up owner thinks he would be a great consultant. What ends up happening is he does a lot of office work and occasionally gives them an idea.
The story takes off when Julie the boss hires Penny to work there. Penny is a great coder, but Julie also suspects the Penny has MPD too, and wants Andrew to help her. Andrew reluctantly does, but things get complicated because Andrew has a thing for Julie, and Julie sends mixed messages. It sort of sounds like a love triangle story. In one aspect it is, but it’s so much more. But it’s too hard to explain so I’m just gonna say read it.
Set This House In Order won the James Tiptree Award, an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. I think the book is only marginally science fiction or fantasy, but it deservedly qualifies on the other front. You see, the personalities in Andrew’s head are both male and female. This isn’t a book that is going to hit you over the head with feminism. It’s more subtle. It’s not even the main point of the book, though Ruff obviously intended to explore the issue of gender.
I think what makes the book work is that every character in the book is likable or understandable. Perhaps not in person, but the book keeps smelly characters like Dennis the overweight programmer on the pages. I didn’t dislike a single one of the characters in Andy or Penny’s head. Or even Julie who would infuriate me in real life because she sends such mixed messages.
Anyhow, highly recommended book. I need to go pick up Ruff’s Sewer, Gas, Electric and Fool on the Hill.
Title: Set this house in order: a romance of souls
Author: Matt Ruff
Cover creator: Todd Robertson (designer), Richard Bradley (photographer)
Imprint / publisher: Perennial / HarperCollins
Format: Paperback
Length: 479 p.
Publication date: 2004
ISBN-10: 0-06-095485-X
Subject: Multiple personality — Fiction
Subject: Adult child abuse victims — Fiction
Subject: Washington (State) — Fiction
LC classification: PS3568.U3615 S48 2003
