The Perfect Fool

I think this book does what a great classic like Gulliver's Travels does, namely, make you laugh and think about human ethics at the same time. So I call it a Comedy of Morals. This too-perfect main character, the attorney Brian, has everything a man needs, except the ability to laugh at himself. (Trust me, before I married I met LOTS of these guys.) He is totally out of his element when he is stranded at a house with five really lovable (and weird) characters. My favorite is the supremely ugly little German fellow, Jubal, a fool in the best sense. During the course of one night, Brian gets a crash course in not taking himself so seriously. It's a fun book, thoroughly entertaining, and I couldn't wait until the end when (I hoped) the story would reveal just who the characters really were, and why they were there.

This really strange (in a good way) book really took me by surprise, it's like no other novel I've ever read. It starts out fairly normal with a young man going off for a weekend in the country but he ends up stranded at a cabin with five people who turn out to be five of his ancestors from different periods of history (sorry if I spoiled part of the plot!), so the book is basically their values confronting his. Fortunately, it is not preachy and never takes itself too seriously until the very end, which I won't spoil, because it really does have a pretty solid moral message underneath all the wacky conversations these characters have. The main story includes stories that the characters tell each other, and a couple of them were good, one a bit draggy. One thing that was nice was that the story actually has an appendix where the author explains some of the odd words and customs referred to in the book.

I got hooked on this book when I opened in the bookstore and read "To begin with, Brian was perfect." Any book that starts like that has to be comic, and this guy is so NOT perfect it's funny. Brian is a success by normal standards but totally nothing on the inside, which he finds out when a major storm ruins his weekend plans and strands him with some wayout people in the boondocks. He thinks the people are psychotics, and I admit I did too until the final chapter, which surprised me even more than the ending of The Sixth Sense. (Don't worry, I won't give it away!) The stories within the story are great fun too, but mostly I liked the conversations between the five characters, kind of witty and comical, but loving too.

The jester's cap on the cover of this novel captures some of the book's feel, since Brian, its 'perfect' main character is held up a total 'loser' in the deepest sense. The handsome stud with his high-paying job gets lost on his way to a mountain resort and ends up in an isolated cabin with five very weird people--and no phone, electricity, or even mirrors! The five oddballs are wonderfully depicted. They entertain themselves by telling stories, each one of them a poke in the eye of Political Correctness and the whole idea of 'perfect' people. The best thing about the book is that it completely avoids a preachy, self-righteous tone. In fact, the narrator constantly pretends to be on Brian's side, though in fact the whole point is that our culture's values and trends are extremely shallow and silly. The ending, which I won't give away (I hate when people do that!) will knock your socks off. If you like to laugh, and if you think our culture is definitely on a downhill slide, you will find this book extremely amusing and insightful.