Matt Ruff has an interesting set of books. They really don’t hang together thematically and are pretty much all over the map in style. So I’m not truly surprised that he’s not a bigger name. I first found him when I ran across a copy of Sewer, Gas and Electric (my review), a book he noted came from him throwing out ridiculous names for trilogies. I was very excited when I heard he had a new book coming out, since he isn’t the most prolific writer. When I heard that his newest novel, The Mirage, would be about an alternate universe where the Christian United States destroys the Twin Towers in the United Arab States on 11/9/2001, I was a little worried. It looked like a difficult premise to pull off. And to Ruff’s credit, he almost manages to do it. So, let’s join this alternate universe and see what happened.

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One thing you can say about Matt Ruff is that his book are interesting and different. And Bad Monkeys is not an exception. The title is based off a South Parkepisode and is broken in a slightly different way than Sewer, Gas & Electric (my review). In that book, the plot goes completely off the rails near the end of the book. In this story, Ruff tries to throw in too much plot near the end. It goes from a (fairly) straight forward story with a whiff of confusion to a double/triple/quadruple switch where it’s not clear which of the many fronts is the correct one. But, it is a fun ride to get there. So, let’s see what the ride is all about.

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Matt Ruff noticed that a lot of books were being published in trilogies, so he decided to make up the silliest sounding trilogy names that he could think of. When he came to Sewer, Gas & Electric, he knew he had a winner, so he decided to actually write the book. The book has always been published in one volume, but he’s split it into for sections: sewer, gas, electric, & (yes, the fourth section is named &). The biggest issue I have with the book is the same issue I have with several “comedy” movies where it starts off funny and then halfway through they decide that it needs to have a plot. The plot is usually silly and makes you wonder why they decided to stop being funny. This book has that problem, but the lunacy does carry you through to the end…mostly. So, read on and see why you should read the public utilities trilogy.

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