The Perfect Fool

Description

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 60s 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.

Stewart Lee's novel, The Perfect Fool was published by Fourth Estate in 2001. Stewart is best known as a comedian on both stage and television and as the writer of the multi-award winning The Jerry Springer Opera.

'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