This book has been on my reading list, no joke -- since circa 1988. I could never find it via library loan or in a used bookstore but I had a gift card and it seems like it's been reissued. Ruff is a post-modern writer, using irony liberally and I previously read The Public Works Trilogy which was much more successful. There are a bunch of narratives here with the only connection really being Cornell University or Ithaca, NY. Supposed to be a modern day fairy tale incorporating different cliques of students, fairies, and talking canines and felines, each with a sort of quest but the cast of characters is vast and it gets really murky -- like the Canterbury Tales meets One Hundred and One Dalmatians -- although all the ends don't really line up well at the end. Also the cheeky references are plentiful, I'm not sure how he didn't get in trouble with either the Rubbermaid Corp. or the Tolkien estate, but seriously he even threw in a Bel Kaufman reference so it's a little too precious even if it's from back in the day (the late 1980's). I'd say if you are not a fan skip and read the later utility/trilogy book. If you like weird narrators that slip in and out with intrusions to plot as a plot within a plot (I think), fairies and talking animals -- then give it a go.

Released at the Aug. 2013 meetup for Boston Bookcrossers!