Rating:  -
I actually bought this as a replacement for an older hard-back copy that started falling apart (due to excessive lending). Though the Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy is considered Douglas Adams' quintessential work, this is probably my favorite single book of his... mainly because nearly every subtle detail in the story somehow becomes relevant to plot. It's both insanely funny and extremely intelligent at the same time.
But, before reading, it might be a good idea to refresh your memory about Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his writing of The Ballad of Kubla Kahn. Explaining why would likely reveal too much of the plot.
Rating:  -
This book is crazy and nothing can be expected from this "holistic" detective story. There is mystery, exploration, suspense, and interesting characters. Douglas Adams has the comic science fictional feel of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy but is a completely different category of book. It is a mystery that seems more "down to earth" while still being crazy and sensless.
The comedy is less abundant and deeper than the Hitchhikers Guide series. The characters of Dirk Gently follow the same sort of pattern as in being deeper and not the comical ones of HG. They are still amusing and fun to read about and the situations they get in are comical. The book jumps around from perspective to perspective and all are fun to read; you will rarely find yourself hoping to for this section to end.
First you find yourself with an outdated electric monk (programmed to believe anything) on a distant planet. This monk rides around on a horse that really wants to be free. This monk is different because he is starting to feel doubt in the things he believes in.
Next, all of a sudden your back on Earth with a man named Richard McDuff. Richard is a computer programmer for Way Forward Technologies. His boss, Gordon Way, is his girlfriend's (Susan) brother. He is falling behind on a program when his boss is mysteriously murdered. Richard is wanted for questioning when he runs into Dirk Gently.
Dirk is a detective that investigates crimes through the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. He claims to specialize in missing cats and messy divorces. This would seem like an interesting way to scam old ladies whose cats have gone missing if they would ever pay him. Dirks role in the book is to help Richard find out what's going on and what happened to Gordon.
Dirk hypnotizes Richard to find out all he knows. When he is done the two things (that arguably have nothing to do with Gordon's death) that he is most concerned with are Reg's trick and how Richard scaled a wall to get a tape recording from Susan. He also makes him do the most hilarious thing (that I wont spoil for you) in order to explain the second thing he found interesting. The rest of the book is their expedition to figure things out and they defiantly find the unexpected.
I really thought this book was great. It showed that he could write things other than the Hitchhiker's Guide. It may be confusing at times but if your patient with the beginning it will unfold.
Rating: -
When I first saw this in the public library, many many years ago, I was afraid. I'd just finished SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH, the fourth installment of the Hitchhiker's Trilogy, and my favorite. (The fifth didn't exist yet.) I was afraid I'd be disappointed by this detour. Then I read the cover blurbs, and it sounded horrid. I put it back on the shelf and found something else. My loss. But now, well, my gain, so hah!
I thought it was little slow getting started, or maybe I was -- it happens to the best readers sometimes. But it's an enjoyable page-turner, combining his trademark humor, imagination, fun, creativity, philosophy, and an honest-to-gosh story that hangs together, peopled by honest-to-gosh people. Pay attention because it's very satisfying. Same thing he did in Hitchhiker 4 before it and Hitchhiker 5 after it. The two Hitchhikers which began as novels rather than radio scripts, by the way. I've gotta hit the bookstores again looking for the sequel to this. THE LONG DARK TEA TIME OF THE SOUL. Douglas Adams has hooked me all over again, and it's a great feeling.
And again, I had to wait for the guy to die to rediscover him. On the one hand it's kinda cruel how I do that, but on the other it gives me hope that somebody will read my own scribblings after I die.
Rating: -
Douglas Adams made a name for himself with his ever expanding trilogy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" which has spawned six books. His writing is a unique blend of wit, humor, philosophy, psychology and sheer silliness that is hard to duplicate. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is a quick-paced, often laugh-out-loud funny trip through time and some absolutely impossible story lines.
Richard MacDuff is an up and coming computer programmer, under pressure from his boss, and on the verge of losing his girlfriend because he immerses himself so completely in his work that he loses track of time. When a trip back to his old college at Cambridge goes awry, Richard finds himself seeking out an old college pal, the infamous Dirk Gently who now runs a detective agency that specializes in 'finding' lost pets and sending bills to clients with outrageous charges on them. For Richard's boss has been murdered, and Richard believes himself to be a suspect, and allows Dirk to help him uncover a mystery that includes time travel, a murderous ghost, and saving the human race from extinction.
Douglas Adams is a master at interweaving several different plotlines that seem disconnected into a simple concoction by novel's end. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is full of his trademark wit and humor, but seems a little too off course, like his later "Hitchhiker" books. All in all, it is an enjoyable read, that even with its out-of-this-world plotlines, still manages to speak to life in today's world.
Rating:  -
Oddballs, including the private investigator.
Yep, I tried this book because I liked the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and probably needn't have bothered, as it was only ok. Some more of the odd sort of things happening, but not in a funny way, really, as the titular character looks into the bizarre actions of a friend, and the strange goings on that may tie everything together.
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