Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls

Andrew is the personality in charge of "driving" the soul-ridden body of Andy Gage. Born from the ashes of Andy Gage's mind, the society of multiple personalities live in a stable arrangement together thanks to a helpful therapist. Andrew is a recently born personality trying to give the body a fairly normal life, starting with a new job at a software company. But Andrew's stability is threatened when his impulsive boss, Julie, hires Penny, another victim of multiple personality disorder. Julie wants Andrew to help Penny tame the chaos in her head. Penny doesn't understand her condition, but some of her other personalities do. Andrew is reluctant to get involved, but Penny's group of protective personas make a plea for help. When his own house of souls collapses under the strain of several shocks, Andrew and Penny end up on a road-trip to confront the past. This is one of the best fiction books I've read this year. Ruff's handling of the multiple personalities is both inventive and sensitive. He is straightforward in dealing with the abuse that led to Andrew and Penny's fractured state - it's clearly important, but not sensationalized. In spite of the serious subject matter, Ruff manages to incorporate a good measure of humor into the story. Andrew's journey gives a whole new meaning to "finding yourself." Ruff's excellent characterizations make it easy to root for Andrew, Penny, and their collective internal societies. I like that Ruff avoids the trap of a cliched, sappy ending, instead making it clear that there are no easy solutions. Ruff's plot was engrossing in all its twists and turns, and only one late section seemed to jump a bit off the tracks. This is a compelling book that will entertain you even as it makes you think about how we all interact with the world.

After his first two books - quirky and sharply written, deftly straddling the imaginary fence between fantasy and literary - Ruff made an interesting decision in choosing his subject matter for his third novel. Instead of taking the "easy" route and returning to a fantasy setting, he steps into the real world, choosing a difficult premise, and delivers his best story yet.While his first two books showed off his ability to handle large casts of distinctive characters and their overlapping stories, he flips the script here by focusing on two characters, both of whom house large and distinctive casts IN THEIR HEADS.Describing the plot doesn't do the book justice as, like any worthwhile journey, half the pleasure is in getting there, and this book is a rare pleasure, indeed. In the end, Andy Gage and Penny Driver will be two people whose lives stick with you long after you reluctantly put the book down.Matt Ruff has done it again!

"Set This House In Order" is Matt Ruff's finest work of fiction to date, brilliantly adding to a splendid body of work that includes such classics as his literary debut "Fool On The Hill" and the Ayn Rand-influenced cyberpunk novel "Sewer, Gas, Electric: The Public Works Trilogy". He offers a fascinating twist on the coming-of-age tale, exploring the lives of the multiple personalities inhabiting the bodies of Andrew Gage and Penny Driver. Like Jonathan Lethem in "Motherless Brooklyn", Ruff writes eloquently and with much compassion about two characters afflicted with a severe personality disorder. None of his splendid prose lapses into cliche or melodramatic writing. It's one of the few books I have read lately that I found almost impossible to put down, compelled to read vast portions of the novel at one clip. Without a doubt, Matt Ruff has become the most distinguished writer ever to have graduated from New York City's prestigious Stuyvesant High School. He is also among my generation's most talented writers, comparable in quality to the likes of Jonathan Lethem, Jeffrey Eugenides and Michael Chabon.

Matt Ruff's delightful new novel, Set This House In Order, has been well worth the wait. His brilliant ear for dialogue and great sense of humor carries the reader through a sometimes emotionally harrowing set of circumstances. While the book focuses on multiple personality disorder, the characters are portrayed as fully human, multi-dimensional (sorry!) individuals. Ruff beautifully captures both the humor and the pathos inherent in this sort of disorder. Beyond the characterization, the novel is wonderfully well-plotted, suspenseful and full of twists and turns as we learn more about the lives and the pasts of the main characters. Once I started it, I stayed up all night reading it. Another great work from Matt Ruff.

If the only way you can see Multiple Personality Disorder is through the lens of Sybil, then maybe you should pass this book by, or at least commit to reading it with an open mind. Andrew and Penny are many things and many people, but they are not Sybil. This book is slightly more grounded in reality than Ruff's other books (no talking animals or genocidal computers, sorry) but that doesn't mean that this book isn't just as well-written and compelling. In fact, it's more so. The best thing I can say about this book is that it changed the way I thought. It's very convincing, and after a few bad experiences with books that failed to convince me of their message, this book was a relief.