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by: Louis Bayard  Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781555834944 Edition: 1st ISBN: 1555834949 Label: Alyson Books Manufacturer: Alyson Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 486 Publication Date: June 15, 1999 Publisher: Alyson Books Studio: Alyson Books Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: An Excerpt Funny that it began with a nap. Naps usually filled him with a nameless dread. Every time he put his head on a pillow, he would remember something he needed to do--something to clean (though he wasn't really that clean) or a book he'd been meaning to read. Or he'd develop a sudden fear of embarrassing himself: mumbling an old boyfriend's name, say, or drooling or some other act still undreamed of, outside civilization's parameters. But nothing, finally, explained how unacceptable it was to be lying there--in daylight--lying there while the rest of the world was awake. How did people do it? On the day in question, though, a Sunday in March, Patrick had been trailing clouds of sleep deprivation. All week long he'd been sleeping poorly, and the night before, three teenage boys had broken into his car, which was parked behind his Victorian row house on Capitol Hill. Patrick might have slept till morning unawares except a neighbor on the other side of the back alley saw the crime in progress and yelled at the boys until they ran away. Then he knocked on Patrick's door to explain what had happened, and just as Patrick was about to thank him and go back to bed, the neighbor mentioned that the police had been called and were on their way. Patrick called twice over the next hour, asking the police not to come. Two hours later a patrolman knocked on the door. He and Patrick waited another half hour for the fingerprint specialist. Still wearing his bathrobe, Patrick led them through the backyard to the car. The first thing he noticed was the Oldsmobile's steering column, which had been peeled open like a can. The second thing was the glass from the rear left passenger window, which had resolved itself into smooth, glittering candy pebbles on the gravel. He fell asleep around 5. Around 6, his downstairs tenant, Deanna, woke him up to tell him about his car: She'd seen it during her morning jog. This left him only a few minutes of sleep before he had to get up for his violin lesson. His teacher--a radiant freckled woman named Sonya, with a river of auburn hair--lived only three blocks away, but 7:30 on Sunday morning was the only time of the week they could get together. Patrick was not improving. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - HILARIOUS!I usually read books set in the Reinassance era, mainly the 1800's and other classic, fantasy, sci-fi etc. Normally, I hate books that are set around our time. But this book I enjoyed. IT was so funny! Yeah, it did not have pretty words to woo anyone with, or unbelivable, shocking events, but it was so fresh and simple that it was delighting to read it. I think that the simplicity and the realization of it makes it so great. It engaged you and I loved the ending. Esencially, what you ... Read More Rating:  - Cute, Fun, Fresh and WhimsicalI picked up "Fool's Errand," on the advice of a friend of mine who reccommended such good reads as the two novels of Timothy James Beck and who shared my appreciation for Rob Byrnes' "The Night We Met." So, I opened this book with a great deal of expectation. Patrick Beaton is a rare sort of gay male protagonist - he's not incredibly passionate, he's not perfect, he's romantic, but he's also got his head so far up in the clouds that he's a little bit of a sap and a pushover. So, ... Read More Rating: - A beauty !Definitely one of the better books I have read this year. Witty, hilarious yet sensitive and touching, Fool's Errand stays with you long after you come to the last word. All of us who are romantic at heart could definitely identify with Patrick's quest and fantasy because we have a little of Patrick and Seth in all of us. The side characters are amazingly vivid, Patrick's father the most endearing. Seth described as the tick who just grows on you and never leave you just tops the ending. A wonderful read ... Read More Rating: - Great!!What a smart, eloquent, from-the-heart book. Unfortunately any gay author with the slightest bit of humor is usually compared to Armistead Maupin, but Bayard is the first I've read who comes close while bringing his own particular brand of wit to the table. Rating: - Hilarious and wonderful book!For some reason I purchased this book some time ago, put it aside, and just found it again last week. I thought it was a wonderful book. I started to laugh when Patrick and Alex split up at the beginning of the book. They do not seem to have much of a relationship; nor are they very upset. Alex is a neat-freak; he wants to know if he can clean Patrick's mini-blinds before he leaves because it will make him feel better. I laughed all the way through it, and read it in about two days. The characters ... Read More 
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