At the center of this story is Richard, a regular guy who
finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery while trying to make up for
absent-minded mistakes with his girlfriend. Richard is at least as confused as
we readers are, at least at first, and we take this mad journey through the mystery
with him. Absurdity after absurdity plagues poor Richard and in the style of
wry British humor, he seems to be the only one who finds it all very alarming,
even the horse that shows up in a professor’s bathroom.
This novel is almost pure entertainment. It’s a story of
murders and ghosts, music and computer programs, possession and post-hypnotic
suggestion, quantum mechanics and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, time travelers and electric
monks. Dirk Gently, who would be known as Svlad Cjelli but for a need to distance
himself from his past, has his finger on the pulse of the universe, sensing its
interconnectedness. Of course, the bill for his expenses might include charges
for a trip to Bermuda to solve the mystery of a lost cat in Cambridge, but that’s
the price you can expect to pay for such all-encompassing expertise.
Dirk’s theories of interconnectedness are tested harshly in
the solution to the mysteries of this story, but he applies himself to that
solution by means both improbable and at least slightly unethical. Almost
everyone is full of surprises (except, perhaps, for our steady, straight-man
Richard), but also possess the dignity to be at least a little surprised that
one might find those surprises surprising. Whatever seems ludicrously improbable
must have some connection to the known universe and is therefore possible in
this really funny story. Whether the whole world can be (or even needs to be)
saved is something you’ll have to learn for yourself. That is, if you haven’t
already read this book.
Coming soon: Ender’s
Game by Orson Scott Card
A Year of Books I’ve Read Before
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