The Perfect Fool
“The Perfect Fool” charts the progress of a collection of misfits, spread across the wide open spaces of Arizona and the narrow streets of South London, all unwittingly caught up in a quest for the Holy Grail.
Mr Lewis believes he was once an astronaut; Sid and Danny’s Dire Straits covers band isn’t exactly filling the pubs of Streatham; Tracy travels between Las Vegas and the Mexican border, fleeing the suspicion that she’s a serial killer; Bob, a Native American clown, no longer finds anything funny; Luther, an acid casualty 1960s rock star, has long since forgotten the most basic chord shapes; and Peter Rugg lost a cigarette down the back of a Portobello Road sofa thirty years ago and is still looking for it.
These seemingly unrelated individuals eventually collide in the deserts of the American South-west, where they form an uneasy alliance. Stewart Lee’s first novel combines an eclectic range of characters and cultures with an instinctive comic touch.
‘Set in a bizarre world where Iain Sinclair's fiction melds with a Coen Brothers’ screenplay…deliciously unpredictable.’ Observer -
”'Lee’s characters bridge some kind of metaphysical Grand Canyon between London and Arizona. His writing is precise, weird, dark and wondrous. Comic moments appear at the most un-comic of moments. This book is mighty fine.” - Rich Hall
”'If Stewart Lee was fatter, shorter, uglier, posher and really, really, really boring, 'The Perfect Fool' would be a sure-fire Whitbread contender.” - Steven Wells
”'It seems grossly unfair that, having already garnered fame, fortune and critical acclaim as a stand-up, half of a successful double act and, more recently, as a director, Stewart Lee should have produced such an ambitious, intricate and impressive novel at his first go.” - Observer
4thestatebooks