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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was OK. PKD is always a quick read for me, pages turn themselves really fast, and things are very evocative, but his plots are just a little too squirrely for me, and there are some things about the world he has created here that I don't quite understand.
If you love The Penultimate Truth and Ubik... Meet the book that started it all! Mind-bending and marvellous! Another 5* rating for PKD from me!
A novel written before his drug-influenced stories but with similar themes albeit not exaggerated. Vintage PKD which is not my favorite but still enjoyed. My main complaint is the set up took about 3/5ths of the book and it really got enthralling toward the last 20% of it. A good book but not one I’d recommend as a starting point for PKD.
I’m not particularly compelled to review or critique this after reading the afterword, knowing how PKD has suffered through his own notions of reality, neuroticism, psychosis, drug addiction and for what - to turn out these books seeking constant approval from publishers so we can be here in 2020... Entertained? Enlightened? To be casual observers of the struggle? Could probably say the same thing for all authors so a small reminder to practice empathy. Still, if you must know I was thoroughly engaged with his writing (as usual).
“Relation of word to object . . . what is a word? Arbitrary sign. But we live in words. Our reality, among words not things. No such thing as thing anyhow; a gestalt in the mind.”.
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Time out of Joint is a sci-fi novel written in 1959 by Philip K. Dick and like many of his other books, it also explores themes of psychological mind trips and constant hopping back and forth through hoops of reality.
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The bulk of the plot is a spoiler, so to say as little as possible about this book: A man called Ragle Gumm lives an ordinary life next door to some great neighbors and in a seemingly ordinary town in the same house with his sister and his brother in law. He makes a living, oddly, by winning big prizes from newspaper competitions. Ragle starts searching for answers when a soda-pop turns into a slip of paper with Soda-pop written on it before his eyes, and he slowly notices other objects turning to slips of paper. He sets out on a journey for the truth along with his brother in-law and the curtains slowly unravel as the pieces of the puzzle are put together.
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The title of the book is a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet : "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite!/That ever I was born to set it right!" [I.V.211-2]).
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This book was really enjoyable to read and I was very satisfied with the ending. Would recommend!
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Time out of Joint is a sci-fi novel written in 1959 by Philip K. Dick and like many of his other books, it also explores themes of psychological mind trips and constant hopping back and forth through hoops of reality.
.
The bulk of the plot is a spoiler, so to say as little as possible about this book: A man called Ragle Gumm lives an ordinary life next door to some great neighbors and in a seemingly ordinary town in the same house with his sister and his brother in law. He makes a living, oddly, by winning big prizes from newspaper competitions. Ragle starts searching for answers when a soda-pop turns into a slip of paper with Soda-pop written on it before his eyes, and he slowly notices other objects turning to slips of paper. He sets out on a journey for the truth along with his brother in-law and the curtains slowly unravel as the pieces of the puzzle are put together.
.
The title of the book is a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet : "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite!/That ever I was born to set it right!" [I.V.211-2]).
.
This book was really enjoyable to read and I was very satisfied with the ending. Would recommend!
A book that could have inspired both Pynchon's [b:Gravity's Rainbow|415|Gravity's Rainbow|Thomas Pynchon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414969925s/415.jpg|866393] (anticipation of anticipation of rockets) and the Truman Show (community set up around one man). While I give it points for anticipating a couple generations early the narcissism of the 21st century, the absurdity of American Exceptionalism, the shallow falseness of community on FB, etc., it was in the end just too damn slow. Most of the narrative was underwater. There was no rush. There were no prose daisies to pick as I picked through the pages. It was good just not great. It was PKD, just not great PKD.
A mind-boggling, thought-provoking, tightly-knit story that had me read from start to finish in one go. Well done, Philip. Well done.
5/5 Stars
5/5 Stars