By now, many have probably seen the book in Borders - a hardcover with surreal cover art on a book jacket in fluorescent pink and yellow. Many have probably wondered what it is. And those who have read the book may still be wondering. Even author Matt Ruff acknowledges that his latest novel, "Sewer, Gas and Electric," is not easy to define.
| PREVIEW | |
|---|---|
 |
Matt Ruff Free Borders Thursday at 7:30 p.m. |
Ruff's novel, subtitled "The Public Works Trilogy," is an updating of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" - in this surreal and futuristic version, the self-sacrificing liberals are the heroes.
There are a few other changes. Whereas Rand's weighty novel runs more than 1,000 pages, Ruff's zips along in a mere 300 or so, shifting scenes and bringing in new characters at a dizzying pace. The novel is set in 2023, and it features billionaires, sinister computers, a submarine full of ecoterrorists and a mutant shark named Meisterbrau.
In Ruff's vision of the future, people drive talking cars, work in immense skyscrapers and live in domed cities, assisted at every turn by mass-produced robots. But this high-tech existence is not exactly a utopia. His altruistic characters must not only battle the local wildlife, but they must also solve a bizarre murder mystery.
This highly original work "all started with the title," Ruff said. "I looked at sci-fi trilogies and I thought, what could be the strangest-sounding name for a book, where you could still conceive a good story?"
Ruff's reading of "Atlas Shrugged" was also important in developing his plot.
"I think I was old enough when I read it that I saw the flaws in the philosophy. I started out to make fun of it, as a quasi-satire, but it turned into something a little different," Ruff said.
"Sewer, Gas and Electric" is indeed something different, filled with unexpected plot twists and situations, and it may make Ruff more well-known as an author. But it is by no means his literary debut.
"I was a writer at 5," Ruff said. "I finished my first novel as a senior thesis in high school, and another in college. 'Fool on the Hill' was my senior thesis in college."
Writing "Sewer, Gas and Electric" took about four years, and it required plenty of research, Ruff said. Some of this was background reading on Rand, who appears as a character in the novel, and some research took other forms.
"I do a lot of weird reading into side paths of history - like the tunnel that brought water to New York, or the alligator safari," Ruff said.
This last anecdote, also included in the novel, is apparently not just an urban legend. Ruff stated that a 1935 New York Times article reported the sighting of a 7-foot alligator in a sewer. It's not revealing too much of the plot to say that this story was clearly an influence on the book.
Ruff said his next book would probably be a departure from the style of this one.
"I wanted to try something a little different, with six or seven subplots," Ruff said.
As Ruff said, the hardest part of writing an unusual book is "getting people to read the book in the first place." Readers might well want to give "Sewer, Gas and Electric" a try. They will encounter a highly inventive and entertaining novel.
Ruff-ruff: Author Matt Ruff will talk about his book at Borders on Thursday night.