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Title: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Author: Douglas Adams Rating: Not available Avg. Score: 5 Submit Comment Hits: 21

Review of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

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Comments for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

• Posted on 2008-05-03
  Professor Plum in the conservatory with the candlestick? Not here
  
  "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is an interesting sideways take on a mystery - but at first, you won't even know that there's a mystery at all. Or that there's anything happening, really - Adams just presents a series of seemingly totally random scenes that are nonetheless entertaining, in their own little bubbles, through insightful character writing and Douglas Adams wit. One of the characters meets a sudden end, and Adams treats his ghostly afterlife as a real horror - he's doomed to wander through everything he loved in his past life, free to look but never touch or enjoy ever again, and he only gradually realizes that this is not a fixable situation. (Adams treats the death like a severe psychological trauma; a moment where the victim tries to reposition his body's face to give himself some dignity is heartbreaking.) It's not all gut punches, though - mostly, for the first half, it's just bits of everyday life (a woman fumes over a missed appointment; an '80's computer programmer attends a dinner at his old college) starring likable characters who're entertaining just for how true-to-life their reactions are...with the common thread of something, increasingly, feeling a little off in their lives. When the other shoe drops, it's not what you'd expect.
  
  The book also has some neat theories about how math is behind the satisfaction we derive from disparate phenomena, particularly music. (HGTG, Adams's most famous work, is noted for light-as-a-feather flights of fancy, but Holistic has a thoughtfulness unprecedented for the author - there is some hard, protracted thought about scientific theory and emotional reaction.) It is, for the first half, stimulating, funny, suspenseful, and wrenching all at once.
  
  And then comes Dirk Gently.
  
  Imagine you're at a supremely interesting dinner party, and halfway through the world's biggest, most self-centered bore shows up and totally takes it over. That's Dirk Gently. I don't know how you feel about smart-aleck trickster characters who take the lead's money while kicking them in the rear, nattering about their own greatness all the while. I'll admit my answer is "not very well at all", even less so when they're endowed with Mary Sue powers. Dirk's friends buy his smokes and groceries because he has Jedi mind powers; his secretary works for him for free, just because he's so awesome; Dirk does everything and knows everything and solves everything, while all the other characters stop being human and lively and interesting to fluff his ego when they should be telling this fanboy wet dream to get the hell out of their story. (Also, since Dirk can't fully appreciate praise from a noncorporeal entity, Adams near-completely drops the most successful, ghost storyline.) The one time the characters disregard his sage advice, it nearly brings about THE END OF HUMANITY, for Cthulhu's sake. It's all horribly nauseating - and utterly disheartening that he's the only character we're sure to see in the sequel.
  
  See, this is a problem. We come to a Douglas Adams for the witty observations and dialogue, but it's difficult to build a story around them. This was the strongest attempt I'd yet read, and yet DIRK THROWS IT ALL OFF. I have to steal*ahem*quote what Roger Ebert said about "Donnie Darko" - it's the one that got away, but we had a heck of a time trying to land it.
  Score: 3
• Posted on 2008-04-11
  Head-spinning fun!
  
  I'm not going to give any spoilers in this review about this book, because honestly the plot is so odd I don't know if it's POSSIBLE to spoil anything effectively. (That's the head-spinning part of the title)
  
  Anyway, the humor is absolutely great. I will warn you though, that the plot of this book doesn't quite pick up until about 8 chapters or so into the book. So if you've tried to read it before but gave up because it's too slow, just be patient. From what I have pieced together, Douglas Adams' writing technique is to give the reader several seemingly disconnected pieces of the plot and this takes several chapters to do. Then he slowly but surely begins to connect them together and by the end, you still may not know what the hell the story's about, but it's quite funny. I found this book laugh-out-loud funny and it only took me 4 sittings to read!
  Score: 5
• Posted on 2008-01-27
  One of my all-time favorites
  
  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.
  Score: 5
• Posted on 2008-01-08
  The Fundamental Interconnectedness of All Things
  
  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.
  
  Score: 4
• Posted on 2008-01-01
  Douglas Adams wrote some great books that weren't Hitchhiker too
  
  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.
  
  Score: 4