Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams
Title: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Author: Douglas Adams
Pagecount: 306 (paperback)
Publisher:Pocket
Description:
"There is a long tradition of Great Detectives, and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. But his search for a missing cat uncovers a ghost, a time traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE."
I wanted to like this book. I really did. Compared to a lot of other people's first book assignments, I felt I got off rather 'easy' with my assignment. I mean, it's sci-fi, it's Douglas Adams, right?
I vaguely recall reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe early on in high school and really liking it, but well...I read a lot of books when I was in high school, and my recollection of their contents is by and large...vague, at this point. I may or may not have picked this up myself, depending on my level of boredom and what other books were available...not a first choice to be sure, but certainly not something I'd be opposed to reading. In any case, I went into reading this with fairly high expectations.
First off, the title of the book is rather misleading. Adams does some...interesting switching around in terms of narrative viewpoints, to the point where the early chapters of the book end up a bit slow/confusing to the reader. I get that this was stylistically intentional, but found my attention drifting/getting a bit frustrated after the first few chapters with the feeling of the author giving the reader pieces of the wider narrative that you know are going to get woven together at the end of the novel but, when you first read them...make for too much disconnect too early on. In any case, narrative switches a lot at first between various characters, including a ghost and an electric monk from another dimension. The main POV character (really, the main character of the book) is NOT Dirk Gently. Dirk Gently isn't really even mentioned until about 1/3 way through the book, and doesn't actually appear until about half way through. That's when the action really starts though - when things start coming together, and when I really started to appreciate the novel. I suppose in that sense him as the title character does have a certain logic to it, but I can't help but feel that this makes the whole first half of the novel feel like nothing more than 'set-up'.
The book, on the whole, is very British. The setting is also very strongly in the late 80's early 90's computer/tech revolution era , making the reading a bit dated (since the 'main character' is a computer programmer and there are computer/tech/program references aplenty). In my case, I feel that my limited familiarity with that time/technology (I was a toddler/youngin when late 80's/early 90's Macs were all the rage) means that at least some of the basis of the humor/satire was entirely lost on me...people who can connect with it more in that sense would probably appreciate the book more than I did. Ditto on scenes poking fun at British academia.
The writing itself was quite good - definitely above typical sci-fi genre ghetto stereotypes; insofar as writing quality itself is concerned, I can see why Douglas Adams has the reputation he has. I was reminded a lot of Terry Pratchett and also somewhat of Kurt Vonnegut, so fans of those authors might be interested in this book as well. Characterization was also impressive, particularly of the less than fully human elements of the story - the electric monk, his horse, the ghost(s), etc. Human characterization was quite believable, and rather cleverly done actually - I liked the 'main character,' Richard, throughout. As for "Dirk Gently" - I went from being vaguely amused (at stories other characters told of his previous exploits) to rather strong dislike/annoyance (upon actually meeting the character for the first time) to realizing he was quite awesomely badass by the end of the novel.
Basically, the book was slow to start, but quite awesome by the finish. It wasn't the best sci-fi I've read, and in terms of the kind of darkish/sly satire tone, I still prefer Terry Prachett, but it was a fun, fairly quick read, worth the time it took to finish it. If there was some big, underlying theme, it clearly went above my head, but as a story, it was overall enjoyable. As previously noted, people with certain knowledge/experience would probably appreciate certain aspects of the book more than I could.
Whether it belongs on a top 1001 list is, to me, rather iffy. I think putting Hitchhiker's Guide on would have really been enough, in terms of what you NEED to read by Douglas Adams. This is neither great nor terrible enough to really warrant a listing, nor does it really deal with any super original themes, writing styles, etc. Its a nice read if you have time to kill and like sci fi, satire, mystery, or best yet a combination of all of those, but I cant think of any reason you'd really NEED to read this.
I'd recommend it, but not with any particular gusto.
Author: Douglas Adams
Pagecount: 306 (paperback)
Publisher:Pocket
Description:
"There is a long tradition of Great Detectives, and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. But his search for a missing cat uncovers a ghost, a time traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE."
I wanted to like this book. I really did. Compared to a lot of other people's first book assignments, I felt I got off rather 'easy' with my assignment. I mean, it's sci-fi, it's Douglas Adams, right?
I vaguely recall reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe early on in high school and really liking it, but well...I read a lot of books when I was in high school, and my recollection of their contents is by and large...vague, at this point. I may or may not have picked this up myself, depending on my level of boredom and what other books were available...not a first choice to be sure, but certainly not something I'd be opposed to reading. In any case, I went into reading this with fairly high expectations.
First off, the title of the book is rather misleading. Adams does some...interesting switching around in terms of narrative viewpoints, to the point where the early chapters of the book end up a bit slow/confusing to the reader. I get that this was stylistically intentional, but found my attention drifting/getting a bit frustrated after the first few chapters with the feeling of the author giving the reader pieces of the wider narrative that you know are going to get woven together at the end of the novel but, when you first read them...make for too much disconnect too early on. In any case, narrative switches a lot at first between various characters, including a ghost and an electric monk from another dimension. The main POV character (really, the main character of the book) is NOT Dirk Gently. Dirk Gently isn't really even mentioned until about 1/3 way through the book, and doesn't actually appear until about half way through. That's when the action really starts though - when things start coming together, and when I really started to appreciate the novel. I suppose in that sense him as the title character does have a certain logic to it, but I can't help but feel that this makes the whole first half of the novel feel like nothing more than 'set-up'.
The book, on the whole, is very British. The setting is also very strongly in the late 80's early 90's computer/tech revolution era , making the reading a bit dated (since the 'main character' is a computer programmer and there are computer/tech/program references aplenty). In my case, I feel that my limited familiarity with that time/technology (I was a toddler/youngin when late 80's/early 90's Macs were all the rage) means that at least some of the basis of the humor/satire was entirely lost on me...people who can connect with it more in that sense would probably appreciate the book more than I did. Ditto on scenes poking fun at British academia.
The writing itself was quite good - definitely above typical sci-fi genre ghetto stereotypes; insofar as writing quality itself is concerned, I can see why Douglas Adams has the reputation he has. I was reminded a lot of Terry Pratchett and also somewhat of Kurt Vonnegut, so fans of those authors might be interested in this book as well. Characterization was also impressive, particularly of the less than fully human elements of the story - the electric monk, his horse, the ghost(s), etc. Human characterization was quite believable, and rather cleverly done actually - I liked the 'main character,' Richard, throughout. As for "Dirk Gently" - I went from being vaguely amused (at stories other characters told of his previous exploits) to rather strong dislike/annoyance (upon actually meeting the character for the first time) to realizing he was quite awesomely badass by the end of the novel.
Basically, the book was slow to start, but quite awesome by the finish. It wasn't the best sci-fi I've read, and in terms of the kind of darkish/sly satire tone, I still prefer Terry Prachett, but it was a fun, fairly quick read, worth the time it took to finish it. If there was some big, underlying theme, it clearly went above my head, but as a story, it was overall enjoyable. As previously noted, people with certain knowledge/experience would probably appreciate certain aspects of the book more than I could.
Whether it belongs on a top 1001 list is, to me, rather iffy. I think putting Hitchhiker's Guide on would have really been enough, in terms of what you NEED to read by Douglas Adams. This is neither great nor terrible enough to really warrant a listing, nor does it really deal with any super original themes, writing styles, etc. Its a nice read if you have time to kill and like sci fi, satire, mystery, or best yet a combination of all of those, but I cant think of any reason you'd really NEED to read this.
I'd recommend it, but not with any particular gusto.