Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.47 You Save: $4.48 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Time Out of Joint
Book Review: Great book, but watch out for the summary on the back...
Summary: 4 Stars
I suppose I should begin this review by stating that I did genuinely enjoy reading this book. I felt it had highly readable prose and a gentle narrative style that eased you into some of the more bizarre happenings which occur later in the story. My one gripe, and I suppose this is just as much my fault as the publisher's, is the summary on the back of the book. Let me explain. Usually when I read a novel, I do my best to avoid reading the notes on the flap of a hardcover or on the back of a paperback. The reason is simple, I don't want the story to be spolied. Now with this particular novel, I am reading at work during my lunch break, revelling in the peculiarities that befall poor Ragle Gumm (the protagonist) when I realize that lunch is almost over and I have to stop reading. I place the book down on my desk face down and while glancing down simply to pick up a pen I inadvertently read two short sentences on the back of the book which ruined all of the suspense and mystery of the story. (They were the second and third sentences of the summary, which is the same as the summary here at Amazon.com, if you are interested.)
I still enjoyed the book, although the last couple of chapters seemed very rushed to me. Yet, now whenever I think about "Time Out of Joint" all I can think of is the gradual dawning of understanding that might have been. The sublime joy of slowly, over time, figuring out what is going on... just as Ragle Gumm does. All spoiled by a poorly written summary on the back of the book.
If you are the kind of person who hates when movie trailers give away the entire story of a film, avoid reading this summary before reading the book itself.
Book Review: Great paranoid science fiction
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a very enjoyable book. Things slowly start to fall apart. The only weakness was the ending to me.
** SPOILERS **
One thing that kept hitting me as I read this, was several scenes were used almost exactly in The Truman Show. The filmakers should have given some credit to this book. I liked the way this book did it better than Truman Show though. In the movie, the viewer knows what is going on from the very begining. In this book, the story is told from the perspective of the protagonist, so you are in his shoes and are slowly made aware that something isn't quite right about this world, as it is slowly revealed.
Book Review: Joint smokes
Summary: 3 Stars
I liked Time but was a bit disappointed in it only because I assumed Gumm was going to be trapped inside a computer. I read a review that seemed to hint at this, and I had been warped by too much Matrix and Dark City. Thus I was surprised to see that Gumm was really living in a big prop-town like Truman Show. It's like seeing the movie preview like Batman and saying, "This is gonna be awesome," and then walking away not totally satisfied. I must, however, give the Dickman his due because his books about hidden reality and alternative history strike me deep.
One more thing about Joint: Why did Dick start his book with a secondary character and not Gumm himself?
Book Review: Mostly Enjoyed
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this book, It has some good ideas, even if wrong, promote deep thought on the qoutes. My only problem is that it got way too political way too fast (at the end).
I would say 4 out of 5 stars since it is a good read, but not his best, still, it kept me hooked, and onto his next novel.
Somethings dont get wrapped up really well, and some of the ideas are forgotten about. I have learned to accept that Dick's books will have a certain amount of politics in them, I try to ignore them and focus on the philisophical aspects.
But overall, it provides good entertainment and, if youre lucky enough, good disscussion on the themes.
Book Review: One of the first great Phil Dick novels
Summary: 4 Stars
One of Philip Dick's more noted early novels is Time Out of Joint, from 1959. This was originally published in hardcover by Lippincott -- perhaps Dick's first appearance between boards.
The setting is what seems a first a slightly altered 1950s. The main character is Ragle Gumm, who makes his living solving a puzzle for a newspaper. Ragle lives with his sister and her husband. He carries on an somewhat unsatisfying affair with the rather immature wife of a not very pleasant neighbor. And he worries about his curious standing as the reigning puzzle-solving champion.
Slowly we realize that his world is somehow artificial. He (and his brother-in-law) uncover curious buried items, occasionally see strange things that seem to imply most everyone in the town in artificial, hear via crystal radio odd transmissions, and so on. One of the most symbolic findings is slips of paper with names of objects -- "the word is the thing", anyone? Most significant is when Ragle stumbles across newspapers and magazines from the future (1998 or so).
The general outline of what's going on with Ragle and his family should be relatively clear -- I'll leave the specific solution and the motivations for readers to discover. The basic idea is, then, familiar enough -- redolent of Daniel Galouye's slightly later novel Simulacron-3, just to name one. What makes the book stand out is for one thing the way Dick uses the 50s setting to comment, as if from the future, on the 1950s (and to do so with an aspect of nostalgia that almost makes the book seem as if written in 1998), also the portrayal of the characters, and finally a certain charged feeling of strangeness -- very much a central feature of much of Dick's work -- that gives the idea of inhabiting an artificial world -- "word as thing" or "signifier as object" if you will -- real psychological immediacy.