It's all about the couch.

Allow me to elucidate. Doug Adams book. Funny? Sure. Satirical? Check. But would you have guessed intricately plotted?

Adams, who practically invented the vein of British literary humor now being minted hand-over-fist by Terry Pratchett, is in fine form with this novel, his major work outside the Hitchhiker's universe. We get the same bumbling protaginsts, the gently affable quasi-villain, the apocalyptic-threat-which-is-not-a-threat, the deft one-sentence-paragraph narratorial asides. Check, check, and checkeroo.

But we also get something we can't have gotten in Hitchhikers, which was written in sometimes lightning-round single drafts, sometimes mere minutes before the radio-plays would hit the air. Under those circumstances, there was no way for Adams to think too far in advance. It had to be joke, bang, plot, joke, action, joke, exposition...and it shows in the number of times he wrote himself into a corner and then had to pull a Deus-ex-Machina out of the sky to save the narrative.

Not so in Dirk Gently, where tiny throw-away details become massively essential plot points late in the book, and all of the little details together topple into a eperfect, crystalline structure by the end of the story. The perfect example is the bit about the couch. At the beginning of the story, we see our poor schlepp of a protagonist working his way over a couch which has gotten wedged in his stairwell. Cute bit of physical humor, and in a lesser book, that would be the end of it. Instead, long about the penultimate chapter, the couch problem becomes a part of the solution to the whole messy apocalyptic threat mentioned earlier. It's a breathtaking bit of plotting, and I can't help but think Adams revelled in the chance to prove that his gift was not just the ability to make up rapid-fire absurdity, but to really master a novel, show it who'se boss, in a way which is entirely satisfying to the reader.

Een soort van bizarre humoristische detective met geesten en andere paranormale activiteiten: what's not to like?
Wie een soort detective-versie verwacht van The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy komt bedrogen uit: het absurditeitsniveau ligt toch wel beduidend lager.
En wie denkt de inhoud al te kennen doordat ie de tv-serie al gezien heeft, komt óók bedrogen uit: de tv-serie lijkt langs geen kanten op het boek, de naam "Dirk Gently" is werkelijk de enige overeenkomst.
Hoewel ik niet weg was van dit boek, was het best een ontspannend tussendoortje. Toegegeven, ik begrijp niet helemaal hoe de ontknoping in elkaar zit, maar ach, ik ben dan ook niet Dirk Gently.

Inexcusably unread for 37.5 years, remedied over a couple of days at the beach.

3 Stars Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (audiobook) by Douglas Adams performed by a full cast.

I like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy better. I thought I liked Douglas Adams’s sense of humor but this just didn’t work for me. This book is produced by the BBC and performed by a full cast. It’s broken into many parts and I think that affected the flow of the story. And it’s acted out as a radio drama and I had a hard time hearing some of the performers and understanding what was going on.

Unfortunately, I think this book confirms a great suspicion of mine; that the work of Douglas Adams is just not for me. I was never a fan of Hitchiker's, unfortunately, but as a huge fan of the Netflix series (don't hate me, folks) I really wanted to give the book a shot.

The plot is hugely different, so the show seems to have only been influenced by the eccentric titular character, but honestly...and I very rarely say this... the show's plot and character was better. Eeek! I'm sorry, but yes I've said it!

For me, Dirk seemed to really fall flat in this. He never even appeared until over halfway through, prior to which we had just heard a bit of backstory regarding his different name, which I felt served little purpose in the plot, and thus don't really get why it was necessary. When he did appear, he was a relatively 2D, mediocre character; nothing unlikable about him, but also nothing extraordinary about him. The only characters I truly cared for was the Electronic Monk and his horse, however once they serve their purpose to the plot, they kind of disappear, which was a shame.

Speaking of the plot...umm, what? I understand that the weird, eccentric wackiness is Adams' trademark, and I did appreciate the oddness of the atmosphere the book creates (it was one of the few things I did enjoy). However, no matter how trademark this may be, for any author, for me as a reader, it still needs to tie up in a logical matter. For a book based on a character whose life career is to investigate the "interconnectedness" of everything, nothing in this book seemed to connect. I have no clue how the end came to be, and I'm not convinced that everything tied up in a logical way, thus leaving the ending really unsatisfying for me.

The humour is also, personally not for me, however this hasn't affected my grading of the book, as this is personal preference, but I just thought it worth noting.

I think I'm going to call it a day in trying to get on board with Adams' work, I'm afraid. Credit to him as a writer, but he really isn't for me, and I think his literature lacks occasionally in fleshing out characters, and really nailing the balance between wacky plots and a satisfying conclusion.

To be honest this is the first time I have read Douglas Adams Dirk Gently books and I have to say it was more of a challange than I was expecting. Now I know that Douglas Adams is famous for his Hitch-Hikers series which took absurdist science fiction to new heights (am sure the more scholarly out there will tell me what the correct term is) but that is such a well know and loved story - that it can almost tell itself.

However with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency I felt that the absurdity was cranked up a little too high - part of the early story I struggled to follow as they seem to jump around far too much either in subject or dialogue or in some cases location.

Now true it does all come together and form a cohesive story and quite a fun one to be honest however it took its time and that was a struggle. I agree with many readers out there if a story does not "click" then move on - after all there are far too many books out there to waste on those you do not enjoy and this book did skate very close to that however it pulled it back just as quickly.

Will I read the next in the series - probably but I am going to have to build up to it so do not expect it any time soon.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m not particularly fond of ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ novel. The first radio series I love, but the novel fails for me because the best bits in it are just taken from the radio series (which, of course, the novel is an adaptation of) and it doesn’t have a proper bloody ending. As a teen I greatly preferred the world of Dirk Gently, and on re-reading the first of those novels – having forgotten pretty much everything which takes place between its covers – I have to say I was a smart old teenager.

Firstly the flaws: plotting was never Adams’ strong point, and undoubtedly that’s the case here. Suffice to say there’s a murder, an eccentric don, an electronic monk and a number of ghosts – all of which come together with varying degrees of success towards the end. The biggest problem with the plotting though is how long it takes Dirk Gently himself to get involved in the action. This novel is nearly half over by the time he appears, which is a great shame as he is by far the most interesting and entertaining character. A private detective who doesn’t agree with Sherlock Holmes that once you eliminate the impossible whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth; simply because he doesn’t like to eliminate the impossible.

(Thank God – whoever He might be – that there’s a sequel.)

However, despite those problems, this is a highly funny, entertaining and intelligent read. (One, incidentally, which seems to draw on Adams’ past as scriptwriter for ‘Doctor Who’ – a very old man with well hidden time machine does appear). A lot of the characters are vaguely drawn and trying to describe what it’s all about afterwards is quite hard, but if you like smart and absurdist humour which will make you think, then this is definitely recommended.

Luego de leer Guía del autoestopista galáctico y El restaurante del fin del mundo, del mismo autor, y de ver la adaptación televisiva reciente de esta saga, esperaba algo más surrealista, delirante y con más humor. No puedo decir que me desagradó, pero tampoco que me encantó este libro.

I reread this with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club this month and really enjoyed it. It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as the Hitchhiker's Guide books, but it's delightfully weird, and I love the way everything wraps up.

Maybe I'm not in the right mood for Douglas Adams, because I didn't enjoy this as much as The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I found the writing funny, but it just wasn't cracking me up, y'know? Might give it another go someday.

Also, they really spit on the source material in the BBC America TV adaption. The only things they have in common is the name Dirk Gently (Show Dirk is very different from Book Dirk in both appearance and personality) and the time travel element. They didn't even use time travel the same way. Like, couldn't you name your show something else rather than try to mooch off Adams's name?

I can't actually explain why I liked it as much as I did.

It is a confusing, fragmented story that only has all the pieces fall into place at its very last moments. And even then it was confusing and overwhelming.

But it was charming in its own way.

The various fragments that seemed unrelated slowly pieced together two different stories, and when these two stories started crossing in the midst of the book, I was beyond confused and pleasantly surprised by it's irrelevancy.

I'm not sure how this could have been possible as usually irrelevancy just annoys me when I try to read a book with a good story.

Supposedly it is because these seemingly unrelated bits and pieces somehow seem to complement each other. And in other ways, they made up for the lacking bits of information.

But somehow it only makes sense in hindsight.

Another thing I find interesting is the boundaries between sci-fi and fantasy. This book itself and its author are known to be classed as sci-fi, and indeed the book is ripe with scientific premisses. However I keep thinking my initial instinct of putting it on the fantasy shelf wasn't wrong.

Maybe it's a bit of both. But it just seemed to me, to be more of a fantasy book. A fantastic fantasy book, at that.

I first read this within a year of this coming out in paperback for the first time, so I didn't remember much about it - except the Regius Professor of Chronology, who was based on an idea Adams had for the 1980 Dr Who story Shada, which never initially aired because of a BBC strike (it eventually saw the light in 2003, with voice-overs to fill in the bits that were missing).

Rereading it now, almost thirty years later, bits of it stand up very well, although it is dated in places, notably where computers and car phones are concerned. However, it still has the weirdness and whimsy I associate with Douglas Adams, and I'm glad I've reread it, and my inner musician really likes the idea of Bach's music being the music of the spheres.