Humpty Dumpty in Oakland - Philip K. Dick

1960 & 1986; 252 pages. Genre : Contemporary Fiction. New Author? : No. Overall Rating : 5*/10.

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On the advice of his doctor, Jim Fergesson is retiring and selling his one-man garage business. It will allow him and his wife to live the rest of their years modestly, but at least that's better than what his friend, Al Miller, will accomplish in life.

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Al Miller leases a plot of ground from Fergesson (adjacent to the garage), and is your classic, shifty, fast-talking used-car salesman. He knows he'll never get rich selling clunkers to patsies, but is happy that at least he understands this cold, cruel world better than his friend, Jim Fergesson. He just needs a break, and he's always on the look-out for it

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What's To Like...

Humpty Dumpty In Oakland examines the character of a number of people, although the spotlight is mostly on Jim and Al. Despite their different circumstances and occupations, their thought processes are remarkably similar. They may argue and get vexed with each other, but for some reason they keep visiting and chit-chatting.

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Philip K. Dick's desciptive passages are great; you can smell the grease and oil in Fergesson's garage, and feel the grittiness of the streets in this poorer part of Oakland.

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All the characters are interesting to get to know. HDIO has the style of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, although in tone it reminds me of Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman.

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Kewl New Words...

Jitney : a small bus that carries passengers over a regular route on a flexible schedule. (Think of today's "van service").

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Excerpts...

"They humiliated me," Al said.

"No that's all in your mind. You project your own motives onto the whole world; just because you're in the used-car business you see everyone in terms of used-car tricks." (pg. 166)

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"Luck is being able to make use of chance," Ross said. "It means that when something goes wrong you can turn it to your own advantage. It doesn't mean, say, always drawing a good hand. It doesn't mean getting three aces and two kings every time." Turning to face Al, he said, "It means that when you draw a nothing hand you can still win, because in some way that eludes the rest of us, you can make a nothing hand a winning hand." (pg. 173)

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"You just a humpty dumpty," Tootie said. "You just stand there, stand around, while it all happen to you. You just perch and watch." (pg. 247)

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"You have to do or you be done." (pg. 49)

Philp K. Dick wrote HDIO in 1960, but it wasn't published until 1986, after his posthumous rise to fame in the Horror genre. His talent shows through here, but you can also see why it went unpublished. Simply put, there's no action to sustain your interest. Miller and Fergesson are engaging souls, but they never do anything, and this isn't Existential Lit.

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So this is mostly for those PKD fans who are compelled to read everything he ever penned - even his early, straight dramatic stuff. For the rest of us, this is still an okay read, but non-essential. And you'll probably be happy that it's only 250 pages long. 5 Stars.

Minority Report - Philip K. Dick

2002; 290 pages. A tie-in book with the Steven Spielberg movie. Genre : Sci-Fi Short Stories Anthology. Overall Rating : 6½ */10.

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Question : What do the movies Minority Report (with Tom Cruise), Blade Runner (with Harrison Ford), and Total Recall (with Arnold Schwarzensteroids) have in common? Answer : They're all based on stories penned by Philip K. Dick.

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This book is a collection of nine short tales by Dick, the longest of which is only 50 pages. All of them are futuristic sci-fi stories (think Robert Heinlein), and all of them have at least one cool twist in the plot.

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Simply The Best...

The showcase story of course is Minority Report, and it was my favorite of the bunch. The story tackles the subject of "free will vs. predestination", and has several unexpected turns in it.

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Second Variety is set in a world reminiscent of the future time-period in the Terminator movies, but was written way back in 1953. Oh, To Be a Blobel! is from 1964, and focuses on the plight of veterans, in this case hanging out at the VUW (Veterans of Unnatural Wars). What The Dead Men Say is also from 1964, and looks at cryogenics long before it was feasible. Ted Williams shooda read this one before he had himself froze.

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Simply The Rest...

The other five - Imposter, War Games, Electric Ant, Faith of our Fathers, and We Can Remember it for You Wholesale (the story Total Recall is based on) are "meh", but that's because they are mostly the shorter offerings in Minority Report. It's tough to write a memorable epic in 10 pages.

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Kewl New Words...

Vitiated : corrupted. Somatic : relating to the body (as opposed to the mind or spirit). Introject : to incorporate the characteristics of someone into one's own psyche unconsciously. Simulacrum : a vague or unreal semblance of something.

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Excerpts...

"With the aid of your precog mutants, you've boldly and successfully abolished the postcrime punitive system of jails and fines. As we all realize, punishment was never much of a deterrent, and could scarcely have afforded comfort to a victim already dead."

They had come to the descent lift. As it carried them swiftly downward, Anderton said : "You've probably grasped the basic legalistic drawback to precrime methodology. We're taking in individuals who have broken no law."

"But they surely will," Witwer affirmed with conviction. (pgs 2-3).

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The peddler reached, selected a gray paper packet. "Sixty trade dollars," he stated. "With a full guarantee; if it does not do as promised, return the unused portion for a full and cheery refund."

"And what," Chien said cuttingly, "is it guaranteed to do?"

"It will rest eyes fatigued by the countenance of meaningless official monologues," the peddler said. "A soothing preparation; take it as soon as you find yourself exposed to the usual dry and lengthy sermons which-" (pg. 233)

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A couple words about Philip K. Dick...

Although he won a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963, for most of his life, Philip K. Dick (his real name, and the "K" stands for "Kindred") was an unknown, starving artist. The Wikipedia article on him is here. His mental health was shaky at best, but it allowed him to meet God (who went by the name of "Valis") and have metaphysical visions. The drugs probably contributed to this.

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He died just as work was starting on the movie Blade Runner. Like John Kennedy Toole, he achieved fame and fortune only after he passed away. Today, his biggest following seems to be out on the Internet, where devoted readers of Dick regularly tout his works.

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The Ver-Dick...

One needs to remember who the target audience was for these stories. Most of them appeared initially in sci-fi magazines and anthologies. Teenage boys care very little about things like character development and literary merits. The only thing that matters is the storyline. That pretty much sums up the style here. Fiction this is. Literature it ain't.

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These are entertaining tales, but only if you're into 60's sci fi. Because of their shortness, there isn't a lot of depth. So I wonder - does he flesh out the plotlines and characters in his full-length novels? Heinlein's novels, of the same genre and written in the same time-period, certainly have substance. I give Minority Report 6½ stars - because it's above-average in what it sets out to do - introduce you to a new author, presumably after you saw the movie. Just keep your expectations in line with whom Dick was writing for.