Matt Ruff

[PZak at aol.com]

As a newbie (and I mean less than a week old!) I've been holding back except
for a quick squawk about the fun KBG reading last weekend in NYC. However, it
may interest P-listers (and potential Matt Ruff fans) that I interviewed Matt
Ruff a couple of months ago for a proposed article that never got published.
However, I'd be more than happy to post my finished (but, alas, did I mention
this yet?--unpublished) article, in case anyone's interested. (It was written
for the Cornell alum magazine, so it's a little campus-specific). Also, you
might want to check out the current homepage of Amazon.dot, which features
Ruff's new book, Sewer, Gas  & Electric. 

Finally, a little Pynchon tidbit regarding Matt Ruff: Pynchon does make a
brief appearance in the new Ruff book, in the form of Finger Lakes marijuana
farmer Thomas Pinch, as Paul Di Filippo said. 

This is what Matt Ruff told me about the Pynchon references and TRP's blurb
on the book: It seems that Ruff and Pynchon share the same agent (ie Melanie
Jackson). Ruff told her he's never really read TRP's stuff, but was familiar
with TRP's style, subject matter and his reclusive nature. Wouldn't it be
amusing, Ruff asked Jackson, if Pynchon  were to write a quick blurb for
Sewer, Gas & Electric to the effect that he (TRP) never really got around to
reading Matt Ruff. A humorous twist on the usual overhyped praise that
appears on book jacket. But TRP did one better: he read the book, apparently
liked it, and, unsolicited, faxed back the curious blurb. This happened
sometime last year, around the time that Pynchon's father died, and this may
explain why the blurb is so short (Ruff said something to this effect).

Is anyone else planning to go to Coliseum Books to buy their copy of Mason &
Dixon first thing tomorrow?

Paul Zakrzewski