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davidreed 's review for:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love this book. I love it far, far more than is in any way reasonable. It is possibly Douglas Adams' strangest work, and it is far and away my favorite. It makes almost no sense unless you read it twice or more. And a good knowledge of the content and historical context of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is essentially required to understand many of the jokes and much of the plot.
Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon which depends the whole of human history before and to come, is the fact that Coleridge never wrote the second "altogether stranger" part of Kubla Khan.
This discovery is the culmination of an intricate, madcap skein of detecting into the interconnectedness of all things by "holistic detective" Dirk Gently, computer programmer Richard MacDuff and his ghostly employer Gordon Way, an Electric Monk, a rogue Time Lord turned Cambridge professor (the book started life as a Doctor Who script), a horse in the bathroom and a thousand thousand slimy things. Beginning with an inquiry into an inexplicable bout of housebreaking, proceeding to impossible magic tricks, a murder, a sofa that can't be where it is, the mathematics of music, aliens, and time travel, the story is packed with whimsical trivialities which turn out to have the most profound significance — in line with the titular detective's much-professed belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but especially nice beaches in the Bahamas. Although it may appear nonsensical, all is in the end tied together — but if you blink, you'll miss the explanation of how the sofa got up the stairs.
Dirk Gently is a much darker book than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's also much richer, with a flavor a little closer to Terry Pratchett (and particularly to the brilliant Good Omens) than to the wacky, almost slapstick Hitchhiker series. Adams' omnipresent punnery and clever narrative is absolutely delightful, if subtle enough that one must sometimes pause to figure out just what sort of trick he is playing. The joy Adams took in whimsy and wordplay is palpable on almost every page. This may be the best-written of his works, and to my mind it is also the funniest. It is a quick read, and well worth the few hours it'll take to read twice. Or five times, if you love it as much as I do.
Because, as it turns out, the linchpin upon which history turns, upon which depends the whole of human history before and to come, is the fact that Coleridge never wrote the second "altogether stranger" part of Kubla Khan.
This discovery is the culmination of an intricate, madcap skein of detecting into the interconnectedness of all things by "holistic detective" Dirk Gently, computer programmer Richard MacDuff and his ghostly employer Gordon Way, an Electric Monk, a rogue Time Lord turned Cambridge professor (the book started life as a Doctor Who script), a horse in the bathroom and a thousand thousand slimy things. Beginning with an inquiry into an inexplicable bout of housebreaking, proceeding to impossible magic tricks, a murder, a sofa that can't be where it is, the mathematics of music, aliens, and time travel, the story is packed with whimsical trivialities which turn out to have the most profound significance — in line with the titular detective's much-professed belief in the interconnectedness of all things, but especially nice beaches in the Bahamas. Although it may appear nonsensical, all is in the end tied together — but if you blink, you'll miss the explanation of how the sofa got up the stairs.
Dirk Gently is a much darker book than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's also much richer, with a flavor a little closer to Terry Pratchett (and particularly to the brilliant Good Omens) than to the wacky, almost slapstick Hitchhiker series. Adams' omnipresent punnery and clever narrative is absolutely delightful, if subtle enough that one must sometimes pause to figure out just what sort of trick he is playing. The joy Adams took in whimsy and wordplay is palpable on almost every page. This may be the best-written of his works, and to my mind it is also the funniest. It is a quick read, and well worth the few hours it'll take to read twice. Or five times, if you love it as much as I do.