Rating: 
Summary: This book was worth waiting for!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Now I have always been a fan of Matt Ruff, but in this book he out does himself. The character development of each different personality is amazing and there are so many twists and turns that it will keep you reeling for todays. i highly recommend this to anyway who enjoyed Fool on the Hill or Sewer, Gas, and Electric...even if you didn't enjoy those I still recommend this book, so great
Rating: 
Summary: to help with this
Review: the basis of this book is all to familiar. Check out "When Rabbit Howls" a true life acount of a woman with several personalities if not several dozens. After reading "When Rabbit Howls" I read "Set This House in Order" and enjoyed it a lot more.
Rating:
Summary: to help with this
Review: the basis of this book is all to familiar. Check out "When Rabbit Howls" a true life acount of a woman with several personalities if not several dozens. After reading "When Rabbit Howls" I read "Set This House in Order" and enjoyed it a lot more.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, disappointing if you've read his others
Review: This book is better than 99% of the books you could read. And for a mainstream novel, it's very well written.But compared to his first two novels, which had strong elements of the fantastic, this is a disappointment. Sure, it's unusual to have main characters with MPD. And I feel that many of the major souls were more interesting than some of the minor characters who were "whole" people. But "Fool on the Hill" and "Sewer, Gas and Electric" are novels which I will never be able to forget, even if I wanted to try. Besides being stunningly original and inventive in style and content, they have characters that are unforgettable. As I read them, I kept hoping that the novel would never end, that's how enjoyable they were. And while "House" has well-written characters, I'm not sure I'll remember them for a long time. And it lacks the originality and inventiveness of "Fool" and "Sewer".
Rating:
Summary: Good book, disappointing if you've read his others
Review: This book is better than 99% of the books you could read. And for a mainstream novel, it's very well written. But compared to his first two novels, which had strong elements of the fantastic, this is a disappointment. Sure, it's unusual to have main characters with MPD. And I feel that many of the major souls were more interesting than some of the minor characters who were "whole" people. But "Fool on the Hill" and "Sewer, Gas and Electric" are novels which I will never be able to forget, even if I wanted to try. Besides being stunningly original and inventive in style and content, they have characters that are unforgettable. As I read them, I kept hoping that the novel would never end, that's how enjoyable they were. And while "House" has well-written characters, I'm not sure I'll remember them for a long time. And it lacks the originality and inventiveness of "Fool" and "Sewer".
Rating:
Summary: Five stars for the first two thirds.
Review: This is a real tour-de-force novel that manages some remarkable feats without being pretentious or overly showy. Grounded, conversational, and naturalistic in style, Matt Ruff latest novel is quite a departure for him, or anyone else, I would imagine. Andy Gage is an average guy with multiple personality disorder who seems to have a grip on it. Rather than integrating all his "souls" into one Andrew, he and his psychiatrist have found it works best for him to have all the personalities present, but in order. His "father" grew tired of being in charge of Andrew's body, so another personality, Andrew, has appeared to try to give Andy Gage a normal life. The souls are all still there, but live in a house organized by the father in Andy's head. Andy lets each soul surface when needed or when something is going on that he feels one might especially enjoy. He might seem a little strange to the outside world, but he's not blacking out and having days and weeks disappear. And he's got a new job with a computer firm in his small town outside Seattle. So everything's going well for Andy until his sympathetic boss hires a new programmer who also has MDP. Unlike Andrew's orderly house of souls, Penny's "society" is in complete chaos. Thrown for a loop, Andy's most destructive soul takes over and Penny and Andy are on the roadtrip from hell to take on the demons of Andy's past in his small Michigan home town. The first two-thirds of "Set this House in Order" are wonderful. Hearing Andy describe how he gets ready in the morning (different souls take on the various elements of the morning toilette) is a kick. But the final third becomes so frenetic that the sympathy and affection set up in the beginning to the novel begins to unravel. Considering what Matt Ruff has set up throughout, is this kind of denouement really necessary, or is it an attempt to tie everything up in a manner that will appeal to more mainstream readers? I was sorry to see the book go in this direction, but nonetheless, "Set This House" is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: All my "souls" agree...
Review: This is one of the best novels I have read this year! The cast of characters is phenominal, each soul distinct and fully realized, as well as lovable; I really cared for all the souls in each of the two main characters "houses". The story kept me going, with enough twists and turns to make it interesting, even exciting as I got to the last pages of the book to see how everyone made it through. The writing was wonderful, I laughed, and cried, and was completely drawn into Andrew and Penny's head, (and heart). I loved it, totally enjoyable!
Enjoy, Debbi :)
Rating:
Summary: Wow! What a great find....
Review: This is the first Matt Ruff book I have ever read. You can see from the five stars that I loved this book. It has a very complex and smart plot. I fell in love with Andrew, Penny and their many personalities. I need to take a look at his other books. I wonder if I have more then one personality. I would have to build a house in my head.
Rating:
Summary: Who's who in someone's head
Review: This isn't like talking to yourself. Or arguing with yourself. This is like reading a movie script, with a cast of dozens played by two people. And it is unbelievably, compulsively readable.
I'm a librarian, and read over 200 books a year. This is the first book in a very long time which I recommended to co-workers. I cared about the main characters, Andrew and Penny, but also became familiar enough with the secondary characters to miss them when I finished the book. I found Ruff's portrayal of 2 characters with MPD, and the manner in which they and their personalities interacted with each other and the rest of the world, both fascinating and utterly believable.
If you're looking for something outside of the mainstream regurgitated fluff (which never asks you to think), but also for something compelling, this is definitely worth the read.
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